Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Uttarakhand CM review the rescue operation in Uttarkashi district on Sunday.
UTTARKASHI :
AS RESCUE operations continue for eight days to save the
41 trapped workers at Silkyara
tunnel in Uttarkashi, Secretary,
Ministry of Road, Transport
and Highways Anurag Jain
announced on Sunday the
decision to take up a fiveoption action plan.
The Government has taken
a decision to work on all fronts
to save the precious lives of the
labourers trapped in the tunnel at Silkyara, Jain told ANI.
“Fortunately, there is light
inside because the electricity
is on. There is a pipeline, and
thus water is available. There
is a 4-inch pipe, which was used
for compression.
Through that,
we are sending food from day
1,” he said.
“In a high-level meeting
today, various options were
examined based on technical
advice and 5 options are to be
pursued,” he added.
“In addition to these 5
options, a couple of additional pipes for redundancy of food
support would also be put up,”
he added.
According to Anurag Jain,
National Highways and
Infrastructure Development
Corporation Limited (NHDCL), Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC), Satluj Jal
Vidyut Nigam (SJVNL), Tehri
Hydro Development
Corporation Limited (THDC)
and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
(RVNL) have been assigned one
option each.
The Border Roads
Organisation (BRO) and the
construction wing of the Indian
Army have also been assisting
in the rescue operation, he said.
Jain further said that the
Managing Director of NHIDCL has been made in charge of
coordination with all the
Central agencies and has been
stationed in Silkyara.
“The Government of
Uttarakhand has appointed Dr
Neeraj Khairwal, Secretary, as
the Nodal Officer for coordination. All the agencies concerned have posted senior officers at the site,” he
informed further.
The Centre has given clear
directions that whatever is
possible must be done for
the rescue operation, Jain
added.
He further said,“Along with
these 5 options, there is an
action plan. We are working
on the declared unsafe areas
where we were working and
stopped later due to movement on Earth. We will make
a canopy and restart the work
with all the security measures.”
Meanwhile, Union
Minister Nitin Gadkari and
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh
Dhami reached the scene to
review the ongoing rescue
and relief operation.
They were accompanied
by Uttarakhand Chief
Secretary S S Sandhu at
Silkyara.
CM Dhami said, “We are
working on all the possibilities available. All types of
expert teams are working
here.”
CM Dhami said that the
State Government is ready to
provide all the help required
to the agencies involved in
the rescue operation.
Efforts were underway on
Sunday to build an access
road at the top of the hill
above Silkyara tunnel for initiating vertical drilling to
reach 41 workers trapped for
seven days.
Larger diameter pipes have
also been inserted up to a
length of 42 metres through
the debris this morning to
provide enough food and
other essentials to the
trapped workers, a control
room set up at the site said.
The Government is sending multivitamins, antidepressants and dry fruits to 41
workers trapped.
Whatever is required to
save the 41 trapped workers
will be done and keeping the
morale of workers and their
family members high should
be everyone's collective
responsibility, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on
Sunday as he reviewed the
rescue operation at the partially collapsed Silkyara tunnel.
It is soft at some places and
hard at other places which
makes any mechanical operation difficult, he said.
Horizontal drilling with the
American auger is the quickest method in the given circumstances to reach the
trapped workers, Gadkari
said.
“"American auger was
working alright when it was
drilling through soft soil. It
faced some problems after it
encountered some hard
obstacle that led to the
machine applying greater
pressure and creating vibrations following which it was
stopped for safety reasons,”
he said at a press conference
in Silkyara.