Workers inside the SLBC tunnel from the inlet side (Domalapenta) as work continued on Friday (March 20). | Photo credit: By arrangement
About a month after work on the outlet side of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel was resumed, excavation work on the inlet side of the tunnel was also resumed on Friday (March 20) as part of the government’s plans to speed up the work, Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy announced.
Work on the tunnel from the outlet (Devarakonda) side resumed in the third week of February and from the inlet (Domalapenta at Srisailam dam) side resumed on Friday. “The government aims to complete the world’s longest tunnel driven without any intermediate access shafts,” the minister said. The tunnel runs as per the project for a length of 43.93 km between Srisailam and Dindi reservoirs.
Another tunnel connecting Dindi Reservoir to Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (AMRP) main channel completes the 7.13 km long tunnel project.
The minister chaired a high-level review meeting to review the progress of SLBC tunnel, Dindi Lift irrigation scheme and Achampet diversion canal. The minister said that after the accident of February 2025 due to the collapse of the roof of the tunnel at a depth of 14 km at the mouth of the inlet, the safety of the workers was given the highest priority, he insisted on ensuring proper ventilation to the last point of the tunnel face along with continuous monitoring and implementation of all necessary safety measures.
The incident on February 22 last year buried 8 workers, technicians and engineers alive and only two bodies were recovered after more than a month-long exercise involving several national and state agencies.
The resumption of tunnel traffic from the inlet side comes after preparations involving a 20-metre open cut and the deployment of other safety devices. Progress from the outlet to date is about 50 meters as the tunnel traverses challenging quartzite and granite formations crossing 15 headwaters, four of which are perennial flows.
To better understand subsurface hazards, experts from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) conducted a VTEM Plus (Heli-borne AEM) magnetic geophysical survey over more than 200 km of alignment. The survey data, penetrating to a depth of 800-1000 meters, helped identify shear zones, water bodies and other hazards for tailored mining strategies, explained Mr. Uttam Reddy.
Published – 20 March 2026 21:46 IST
