Army takes charge to rescue laborers trapped in tunnel, drilling may take four days

Army took charge of the rescue operations at Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand to bring out 41 laborers who were trapped since November 12.

The National Disaster Management Authority said that along with removing the broken parts of the auger machine, manual digging is going on in the Silkyara Tunnel of Uttarkashi. At the same time, vertical drilling has also started to rescue the workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel.

According to sources, the blades of the auger machine have been completely removed. While drilling, the blades got stuck in the steel mesh. The blades of the drilling machine have been removed through plasma cutter and laser cutter.

NDMA member Lieutenant General (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said that all efforts are on to rescue the workers trapped in the tunnel. Hasnain said that the work of vertical drilling, considered the second best option, started around noon and drilling of 15 meters has been completed.

A plasma cutter was sent from Hyderabad on Sunday to cut and remove parts of the auger machine stuck in the debris inside the Silkyara tunnel.

Now the plan is that the expert workers themselves will go inside and remove the debris with the help of equipment and will also cut the rods coming in the way. This work will take time. He said that once the broken parts are taken out, they will be able to reach the trapped workers.

Apart from this, a third route is being made from the right side of the tunnel where an attempt is being made to make a 180 meter short tunnel with the help of tunnel boring machine. A unit of the Madras Sappers, an engineer group of the Indian Army's Corps of Engineers, reached the site on Sunday to assist in rescue operations.

To reach the workers, an attempt is being made to build a fourth route from Barkot, where about five hundred meters of the mountain has to be cut. But the most hope still lies with the efforts being made by Silkyara and then vertical drilling.

Meanwhile, food, water and oxygen are being supplied daily through a six-inch pipe to the workers trapped inside. They are being talked to continuously and are being assured of their safe evacuation.