U’khand tunnel collapse: 21 m drilled through rubble for labourers’ rescue

Working overnight with a powerful machine, rescuers drilled 21 meters through the rubble in the Silkyara tunnel, getting closer to the 40 workers trapped there for five days.

Workers must drill up to 60 meters to insert 800mm and 900mm diameter pipes one after the other – using a giant drill until an escape passage is created for the workers trapped behind the collapsed section of subfloor. construction tunnel, said NHIDCL managing director Anshu Manish Khalkho.

The workers have been trapped since Sunday morning when part of the tunnel collapsed following a landslide.

“So far, drilling has been carried out up to 21 meters,” the control room of the state emergency operations center in Silkyara said.

The section where the debris accumulates starts 270 meters from the mouth of the tunnel on the Silkyara side.

Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela said the trapped workers are safe and are being supplied with oxygen, medicines, food and water through pipes.

There is constant communication with them to maintain their morale, he said.