The 41 construction workers who have been stuck inside the collapsed Silkayara tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district for more than two weeks are three metres away from the rescuers, according to reports on Tuesday. This gives rise to optimism that the workers may be liberated by Tuesday at 5 p.m.
According to the authorities, roughly 3 metres of manual drilling remained after more than 55 metres had been finished. Officials added that the tunnel’s vertical drilling had temporarily ceased.
Neeraj Khairwal, the Uttarakhand Secretary and Nodal Officer for the Silkayara rescue effort, stated, “As of now, we have pushed in the pipe 55.3 metres. There’s not much more distance to go…It could be between 57 and 59 metres. If there are no additional obstacles, it could take a few more hours. We hope by the evening…Let’s hope for the best and offer prayers.
The vertical drill machine has been turned off after boring for more than 36 hours in order to facilitate hand drilling of the tunnel. According to the agencies’ most recent update, the vertical drill has now penetrated 51 metres of earth, putting the trapped personnel in danger of being reached shortly.
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According to the most recent report, the Uttarkashi tunnel’s vertical drilling has been halted to make sure that the manual drilling operations below are not impeded. Additionally, the procedure of replacing the machinery has finished.
#UPDATE Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) tunnel rescue | Vertical drilling on the hill has been stopped for the time being. Manual drilling is going on successfully inside the tunnel and to ensure that there is no hindrance in the drilling work below, vertical drilling has been stopped.…
— ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2023
The 800 mm pipe will be put in the drilled area after only about 56 metres of debris and dirt remain to be drilled in order to reach the trapped personnel. A rope and a bucket will be used to hoist each worker out of the tunnel one at a time.
Before, an American auger machine was sent in to drill the tunnel horizontally in order to save the workers; however, the machine collided with a metal grinder and malfunctioned irreversibly. A plasma machine was brought in to cut out the auger from the rubble and the soil.
It is anticipated that the trapped workers will be freed in 36–48 hours if things continue this way. Authorities had earlier stated that by this Thursday of this week, the rescue efforts might be finished. The state or the Centre, however, has not yet provided an official schedule for the mission.
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What’s next for the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue project?
Experts in rat hole mining were transported to Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, to oversee and direct the manual drilling procedure within the pits. According to a rat hole mining expert, the hand drilling should be completed in a further fourteen hours.
According to specialists, there have not yet been any metal impediments found in the final few metres of dirt, which suggests that the drilling could be finished within the following day.
