AMN / WEB DESK
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.
The rescue operation of the 41 workers trapped in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi district is underway on war footing. In a media briefing in Delhi, National Disaster Management Authority member, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain said, trapped workers are in stable condition and full safety measures are being taken to protect both the trapped workers and the rescue personnel. He said, rescue workers are getting sustenance on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the rescue team has started vertical drilling and an estimated 86 meter digging is required to reach the trapped workers.
Lieutenant General Hasnain informed that an additional communication pipeline has been established to ensure communication between the workers and their families. He said, from the horizontal side, manual cutting to remove debris will be done as soon as the remains of the auger machine are removed. He said, an alternative drift technique will be adopted, if this fails in any way, Lieutenant General Hasnain further added that all the agencies are taking every possible effort to rescue the workers.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said that the rescue operation is continuing despite difficult conditions.