Uttarkashi video shows how 41 workers will be pulled out of collapsed tunnel
Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: The 41 workers would lie on low, wheeled stretchers that would be pulled out of the horizontal chute using ropes.
Drilling through the rubble to prepare an escape route for the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi resumed on Friday morning, a day after another snag hit the rescue efforts. The workers will be pulled out on wheeled stretchers one by one through a big pipe.
Earlier on Friday morning, former advisor to the Prime Minister's Office Bhaskar Khulbe said boring through the rubble with an auger would resume by 11.30am and the operation might successfully be completed by the evening if everything goes well.
Citing the data scanned by a ground penetrating radar, he said there is no metallic obstruction up to five metres beyond the 46-metre point through the rubble.
The workers would lie on low, wheeled stretchers that would be pulled out of the horizontal chute using ropes.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) earlier on Friday demonstrated how the stretchers will be used to pull out the trapped workers.
To give an emergent safe passage of the workforce for pipe pushing activities by auger machine, from near the pipe drilling machine, an escape passage by way of placing concrete culvert block, hume pipe and steel pipe for a length of 67 m (187 m to 120 m) has been taken up and work has been completed.
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A 25-tonne platform mounting the Heavy American Auger machine being used to drill through the debris has been strengthened using an accelerating agent for the rapid hardening of concrete.
The platform on which the equipment was mounted had developed some cracks when the rescue operation was underway on Thursday, and the process of horizontal drilling through the debris had to be paused.
As per the official bulletin, the pushing of the 9th pipe started at 1:10am on Friday and the pipe reached an additional 1.8 metre, but suddenly, a minor vibration was noted.
Following this, the auger was pushed slightly back to re-assess the force to be applied wherein the rescue team observed the obstructions.
On November 12, a portion of the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Barkot collapsed and debris falling in the 60-metre stretch on the Silkyara side of the tunnel trapped 41 labourers inside.
The workers are trapped in a 2 km-built portion, which is complete, including concrete work that provides safety to the workers.
