Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue: Vertical Drilling Likely To Take 4 More Days, Official Says — Updates

Drone cameras are being used by experts to monitor the rescue operation.

Efforts to evacuate 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi is underway.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: As efforts to evacuate 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi is underway, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday said that work is on to retrieve broken parts of the auger machine.

NDMA Member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain told reporters that all efforts are going on to rescue the workers, reported PTI.

"The broken part of auger machine, which was stuck in the 47-metre long segment, has been retrieved up to 34 metres and approx. 13 metres are still remaining. We hope that it will be brought out by tonight," he said.

VIDEO | "The broken part of auger machine, which was stuck in the 47-metre long segment, has been retrieved up to 34 metres and approx. 13 metres are still remaining. We hope that it will be brought out by tonight," says Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain, NDMA member on Uttarakhand… pic.twitter.com/AdPbAR6LMx

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 26, 2023

Meanwhile, drone cameras are being used by experts to monitor the rescue operation.

#WATCH | Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) tunnel rescue: Drone cameras are being used by experts to monitor the rescue operation that is underway here to bring out the 41 trapped workers. pic.twitter.com/MxmxGhPkda

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2023

Here Are The Latest Updates:

• NDMA stated that vertical drilling has also started from the hill above the tunnel to bring out the workers trapped in the collapsed tunnel for the last 14 days.
  
  
• Hasnain said the work on vertical drilling started around noon, and 20 meters of drilling has already been completed. After 86 meters of vertical drilling, the crust of the tunnel will have to be broken to bring out the trapped workers, he added, reported ANI.
  
  
• "Around 19.2 meters of vertical drilling has been done. We have to drill around 86 meters which is likely to be done within four days (November 30). The pace of work is good. We haven't come across any obstacles so far, and hope that we face no further obstacles and the work gets completed as early as possible," said Mahmood Ahmad, Managing Director, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
• He also mentioned that as many as six plans are being executed to rescue the workers but the best option so far is horizontal drilling under which 47 meters of drilling have been completed.
  
  
• Machines for undertaking sideways drilling (perpendicular drilling) are expected to reach the rescue site during the night, Hasnain added.
  
  
• Hasnain stated that once the broken parts are retrieved, manual digging of 15 meters will be done to reach out to the trapped workers though it may take time.
  
  
• A complete disengagement of the machine is necessary for the officials to resume the rescue work which involves manual pushing of pipes through rubble to prepare an escape passage. A part of a drill machine has also been sent atop the hill, above the tunnel, for vertical drilling.
  
  
• A unit of Madras Sappers, an engineer group of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army, arrived at the site on Sunday to assist in the rescue operations.
  
  
• The rescue effort began November 12 when a portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route collapsed following a landslide, cutting off the exit for the workers inside.