It has been 17 days since the 41 workers were trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. The rescue operation is underway and manual drilling is currently underway.
Since November 12, several agencies have led the rescue operation. However, various obstacles have halted the operation several times.
Initially, the company planned to rescue workers engaged in horizontal drilling with the help of international tunneling experts. After working on this plan, the operation had to be halted on November 24 when the Auger’s drill blades broke. Plasma and magna rod cutting machines were then transported to the site to remove the stuck auger blades.
On Monday, rat hole mining experts began manually drilling vertically through the rubble to rescue the 41 trapped workers.
The rescue team had to drill to a total depth of about 86 meters to reach the trapped workers. On the first day, rescuers implement the new approach by drilling into the hillside above the Silkyara Tunnel. According to CNBCTV18, rescuers were able to exceed the twenty-meter limit.
Things look positive, Chris Cooper said
On Tuesday morning, microtunneling expert Chris Cooper told news agency ANI that drilling work went well last night, allowing the rescue team to cross the 50-metre mark. He added that the rescue team was laying another pipe, and a borehole of 5 to 6 meters remained. “It looks positive,” Chris added.
On the other hand, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) teams were busy recovering the broken parts of the jacking machine while vertical and manual drilling operations were underway to create an escape route for the trapped workers.
Harpal Singh, former DG of Border Roads Organization, said that pipe frames of 800 mm are being prepared and will gradually go from half a meter to one meter. If everything goes well and there are no obstacles, a distance of 10 meters can be covered in 24 to 36 hours.
86 meter drilling required
A total of 86 meters had to be drilled to create an escape route for 41 trapped workers. This involved laying pipes 1.2 meters wide from the top of the tunnel.
Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) is working on a project to create a rescue tunnel from the Barkot end with the fifth blast occurring recently on November 26 at 2:25 am.
Some top officials, including the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister; Pramod Kumar Mishra, Union Home Minister; Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand; SS Sandhi today visited the Uttarkashi Silkyara Tunnel to inspect the ongoing rescue operation. Mishra inspected the tunnel site, interacted with the family of the trapped workers and also inquired about the food being sent every day.