Hyderabad, March 10 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday night announced ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh for the family of Gurpreet Singh, whose body was recovered from the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool district on Sunday.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed condolences over the death of the worker engaged in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel works.
The rescue teams identified the human remains found in the tunnel as Gurpreet Singh from Punjab, who was one among eight workers trapped in the tunnel after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on February 22.
Gurpreet Singh was working as a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operator in the American company Robbins.
Conveying deep sympathies to the bereaved family members, the CM announced Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia. The mortal remains of Gurpreet Singh have been sent to the home town in Punjab.
On the 16th day of the rescue operation, rescue workers on Sunday recovered the body of one of the eight missing persons after the cadaver dogs from Kerala identified a spot for the presence of human remains under the rubble.
The specially trained dogs identified human presence at D-2 point about 100 meters from the accident site in the final stretch of the 14-km-long tunnel.
The rescue workers carefully excavated silt at the identified location and pulled out a body on Sunday evening.
The rescue teams continued the search for the remaining seven persons in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel.
Four labourers, two engineers and two machine operators, hailing from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir were trapped in the tunnel on February 22 when a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed during the excavation.
The seven trapped persons are Manoj Kumar (UP), Sri Niwas (UP), Sunny Singh (J&K) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
Several agencies of the state and Central governments have been making efforts for the last 15 days to trace the missing persons.
–IANS
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