Uttarkashi tunnel collapse updates | Rescue teams set 100-hour vertical drilling target

Rescuers began drilling into the hill above the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel Sunday, boring nearly 20 metres on the first day of adopting the new approach.

The vertical approach was one of the at least five options on which preparatory work had begun some days back. 

As the drilling progresses, 700-mm wide pipes are being inserted to create an escape passage. A little distance away, a thinner, 200-mm probe is being pushed in. It has reached the 70-metre mark.

PTI

In Khirabeda, the anxiety has now reached its peak as three people from this nondescript village on the outskirts of Ranchi are still stuck in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand.

19.2 met vertical drilling from the top of Silkyara tunnel being done by SJVNL has been completed till 7:30 p.m. today.

Rescue teams have set a target of 100 hours to complete vertical drilling, that is by Nov 30, only in case if no hurdles come in between.

A unit of Madras Sappers, an engineer group of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army has been called in at Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel for manual drilling. 

30 personnel of the engineer regiment have arrived at the spot to expedite the rescue operations.

For manual drilling, the Indian Army along with civilians will do rat boring inside the tunnel.

ANI

Vertical drilling started at around 12 noon, and 86 meters of digging is required to reach the trapped workers, NDMA said.

Further, 15 meters of vertical drilling has been completed today.

Rain at several parts, and snowfall above 3,500 mt. above sea level is predicted in Uttarkashi district on November 27, where Silkyara tunnel rescue operation is going on.

The next two days will be even more difficult for rescue teams as chilly weather conditions will prevail.

- Ishita Mishra

With vertical drilling underway to further aid the rescue of the trapped workers in Silkyara tunnel, the rescuers managed to make progress over a distance of 8 metres down the ground in the last one and a half hours.

According to official sources, drilling of up to 8 metres has been completed in the last one and a half years, and currently, the work to lay a 900-mm pipeline is being undertaken.

Vertical drilling, one of the several chalked-out options to bring out 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel, started on Sunday afternoon.

- ANI

Vertical drilling, one of the several chalked-out options to bring out 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi since November 12, finally started on Sunday afternoon.

Two locations were identified for the vertical drilling, and both are on the Silkyara side of the high-altitude under-construction tunnel, a portion of which caved in on November 12.

SJVN, a public sector undertaking company involved in hydroelectric power generation and transmission, has just started vertical drilling work on the top of the tunnel atop the hill, the 15th day of continued rescue efforts. 

- ANI

“I don’t want my son to work further in the tunnel”, says a grieving Chaudhary, father of Manjeet, one of the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi.

A resident of Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, the 50-year-old Chaudhary is suffering from vision loss in one of his eyes.

Manjeet, 22 years o.ld, has been trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel since November 12.

Chaudhary said that he does not want his son Manjeet to take up this work again after he is rescued anytime soon.

Chaudhary said, “Manjeet’s mother, sister and locals are praying to see Manjeet come out safely and return to his village. We will do farming, animal husbandry or start a small business at home.”

Chaudhary has already lost his elder son Deepu (22) in a bridge construction accident in Mumbai.

The family is finding it hard to keep both ends meet as Manjeet is the sole breadwinner for the family.

- ANI

The Indian Air Force flew in ‘critical DRDO equipment’ in an effort to accelerate the rescue of 41 workers, who are trapped inside the collapsed portion of the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi for over two weeks now, the IAF informed through an official release.

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Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited on Sunday the family of Pushkar Singh Airi, a worker from Tanakpur who has been trapped in the Silkyara tunnel for the last 15 days.

Speaking on the ongoing rescue operations, CM Dhami said that the auger machine cutting that got stuck in the debris of the Silkyara tunnel to rescue the workers is underway and will be completed soon.

- ANI

On November 12, the Sunday India woke up to celebrate Deepavali and the yearly Char Dham yatra was closed to the public for winter, construction workers were trapped about 60 metres into the tunnel they were building, due to a landslide, at 5 a.m. On one side was the debris and on the other, the mighty mountain through which men and machines were boring. They were extending National Highway 134, cutting short the travel distance from Dharasu to Yamunotri by about 20 km and travel time by about an hour.

Silkyara tunnel collapse | Trapped in the Himalayas

Silkyara tunnel collapse: The 41 workers, who were sealed into an under-construction tunnel they were building to ease the journey of pilgrims to Uttarkashi’s Yamunotri shrine in Uttarakhand, remain in its gloomy darkness, with just two pipes as lifelines for food and communication.

In Khirabeda, the anxiety has now reached its peak as three people from this nondescript village on the outskirts of Ranchi are still stuck in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand where the rescue operation hit another setback.

The blades of the auger machine drilling through the rubble of the tunnel were on Saturday stuck in the debris, forcing officials to consider switching to options that could drag on the rescue of 41 trapped workers by several days — even weeks.

Ever since the news reached a paralysed Shravan Bediya, 55, whose only son Rajendra is trapped there, the desperation on his face became palpable even though he is confined to his bed.

Besides 22-year-old Rajendra, two others from the village — Sukhram and Anil, both in their early twenties, are trapped inside the tunnel for two weeks now.

Sukhram’s mother Parvati, who is also paralysed, has been inconsolable since she found out about the disaster that happened in Uttarkashi.

In Anil’s house, his grieving mother has not cooked anything for the last two weeks. The family has been surviving on whatever food their neigbours are providing.

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.

- PTI

As part of efforts to provide assurance to 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel and relieve their stress, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has stepped in to provide them with a landline through which they can talk to their families.

Kundan, a BSNL official, said they are in the process of sending a small landline phone to the stranded workers through the pipe. “Through this, they will be able to talk directly to their families,” he said.

He said BSNL has set up a small telephone exchange at the tunnel site and the phone will be connected through a line.

- ANI

With the rescue operations at Silkyara tunnel facing hurdles, the authorities here have given mobile phones and board games to the 41 trapped workers to alleviate their stress, an official said.

“The mobile phones have been given so that the workers can play video games. Board games like ludo, and snakes and ladders have also been provided to them,” an official said.

“These games will help them bust their stress,” another officer said.

- PTI

A plasma cutter was flown in from Hyderabad on Sunday to cut and remove parts of the auger machine stuck in the rubble inside the Silkyara tunnel where 41 labourers have been stranded for the last 14 days.

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 a vertical drilling.

- PTI