Uttarakhand tunnel collapse highlights: Vertical drilling makes swift progress in rescue ops

Secretary in the Uttarakhand government Neeraj Khairwal said the work to remove the auger machine that was stuck in the rubble has been accelerated.

"With the arrival of plasma cutting machines and other machines, the work is going on at a very fast pace. No hurdle has come so far, the timeline to remove it cannot be told. We are removing the broken auger faster than before. It cannot be told how much time will be taken to remove it, after it is cleared, we will do manual drilling inside. The Army's Engineering Regiment will also prepare a plan as to how to work further," he said.

Two BRO officials were injured after their SUV was hit by a private bus near the Silkyara tunnel site on Sunday afternoon, police said, reported PTI.

The accident occurred just half a kilometre away from the tunnel, where 41 workers have been trapped for 14 days, when three Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials were on the way to the site in their official vehicle.

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 to reach 41 workers trapped inside for 14 days.

The vertical approach was one of the at least five options on which preparatory work had begun some days back, as anxiety mounted over the fate of the men trapped in the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand’s Char Dham route.

Rescue workers have to drill down 86 metres to reach the tunnel. By evening, the heavy drilling equipment had bored down to about 19.5 metres.

Now 8.15 metres of blades of auger machine to be taken out of rescue pipes inserted through debris. Vertical drilling by SJVNL 19.2 metres done.

Addressing a press briefing in New Delhi, NDMA Member Syed Ata Hasnain said," Our Plan 2 has been currently adopted. The drilling machine reached yesterday. Vertical drilling started at around 12 noon today and 86 meters of vertical digging is required to reach trapped workers.17 metres of drilling has already taken place. We have done geological studies and studies are suggesting that there might be no obstruction. We are checking the stability."

NDMA member further informed that Plan 3 of the sideways drilling has not been started yet.

Vertical drilling of 19.2 metres done on first day to create escape passage for 41 workers trapped inside Silkyara tunnel: Official.

As rescue personnel raced against time to reach the workers trapped inside an under-construction tunnel, the process of removing the Auger machine from the debris is underway, and the process is being done by cutting through a plasma cutter machine.

Meanwhile, only 10.9 metres of auger machines are left in the pipeline.

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 at the site where 41 workers have remained trapped for the past 15 days.

"To do manual drilling, the Indian Army along with civilians will dig out the debris inside the tunnel with weapons like hands, hammers and chisels and then the pipe will be pushed forward from the platform built inside the pipe," an official said.

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.

15 metres of vertical drilling work completed. As a second option, vertical drilling work was started from the hill above the tunnel.

After facing a setback as the American auger drilling machine suffered irreparable damage and its blades got stuck in the rescue pipes which were being pushed through the debris to create passage, rescuers started vertical working atop the hill to evacuate the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarkashi since November 12 morning.

Mahmood Ahmad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India and Managing Director of National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) while addressing a press conference said, "We have now come to a stage where we started working on 2-3 more options since yesterday (Saturday). The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) is doing a vertical drilling of 1.2 metre diameter for us for evacuation of trapped men. We identified spots where the drilling could be better...The drilling of almost 15 metres is complete and 86 metres has to be done. We think that this will complete in 100 hours (next four days) if there is no obstacle. Once machine can only drill for 45 metres. We will have to change the machine."

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met the family members of trapped worker Pushkar Singh Airy in Tanakpur area in Champawat district on Sunday and assured them that all the workers trapped in the tunnel will be rescued safely soon.

The Chief Minister said that all the workers are safe and rescue work is being done at war footing level on the spot to get all the workers out safely. He said that the government is committed to the safety of every worker. Food items are also being supplied regularly to the workers. CM was in Tanakpur for the foundation laying ceremony of the inter-state bus terminal (ISBT).

Airy’s parents and relatives are living in hope and disappointment amid the new challenges the rescuers are facing in the rescue operation in the Silkyara tunnel.

Drone cameras are being used by experts to monitor the rescue operation that is underway here to bring out the 41 trapped workers.

The National Disaster Management Authority on Sunday said that work is on to retrieve broken parts of the auger machine and start manual digging. NDMA Member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain told reporters that all efforts are going on to rescue the workers.

Considered as the second best option, the work on vertical drilling started around noon and 15 meters of drilling has already been completed, Hasnain said.

"Once he comes out, we will never allow him to work here again," a distraught Chaudhary said on Sunday, waiting for the rescue of his son, who has been stuck inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara along with 40 others for two weeks.

Having lost his another son in an accident in Mumbai earlier, the farm labourer from Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh is now going through the terrible ordeal of waiting for the safe return of his second son.

Machine for sideways drilling expected to reach Silkayra tunnel rescue site during night, says NDMA

Vertical drilling started at around 12 noon; 86 meters of digging required to reach trapped workers, says NDMA.

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.

The vertical drilling process is making swift progress, as the machine has drilled over 8 metres in the last 1.5 hours. The work to lay down the pipe through which workers will be wheeled out is currently underway.

The Indian Army has been tasked with carrying out the manual drilling operation to remove the metal obstructions in the Silkyara tunnel in the final phase of the rescue operations.

The American auger blade remains stuck in the rubble as the plasma machine shipped from Hyderabad has started cutting into the metal to free the machine, pushing the rescue operations further.

The trapped workers in the Uttarakhand tunnel collapse mishap are expected to be freed in the next 24-36 hours, according to the agencies. The vertical drilling has commenced, and if all goes to plan, this will be the final phase of the operation.

The vertical drill machine and the plasma machine from Hyderabad are working to remove the auger machine and drill the escape route for the 41 trapped workers.

After 15 days of struggle, the Indian Army is set to join the rescue operations for 41 workers trapped in the collapsed Uttarkashi tunnel. The Army officials will step in to cut out the pieces of the stuck auger.