DRILLING through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel was put on hold again Thursday after the platform on which the equipment is mounted developed some cracks, in yet another setback to the effort to rescue the 41 workers trapped inside. The rescue workers will “stabilise” the platform on which the 25-tonne auger machine is mounted before drilling is resumed, officials said. Sections of steel pipes were being inserted through the rubble of the collapsed portion for the workers, trapped for 11 days, to be brought out. Rescue operations to evacuate 41 workers trapped in Silkyara tunnel resumed on Thursday after an overnight hurdle delayed the drilling by several hours. Former advisor at the Prime Minister’s Office Bhaskar Khulbe, who was at the site, said an iron obstruction that had come in the path of machine drilling an escape path for the workers was removed in the morning. The setback delayed drilling through the 57-metre stretch of the rubble by six hours, dampening somewhat the previous evening’s enthusiasm over the imminent rescue of the workers. They have been trapped for 11 days after a portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand’s Char Dham route collapsed.

 

At 10 am Thursday, Khulbe told reporters it would take 12 to 14 hours of drilling to insert six-metre sections of steel pipes through the debris. Section-by-section a steel pipe is being pushed through the rubble as the auger machine drills. Once the chute emerges from the other end, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) men will enter it to help bring out the trapped workers one by one. The worker would lie on low-height wheeled stretchers that will be pulled out of the horizontal chute using ropes. This process is likely to take another three hours, Khulbe said. The trapped workers are being sent food, medicines and other essentials through a new six-inch wide tube, which is also being used for communication. Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh and NDRF Director General Atul Karwal were at Silkyara Thursday to review the rescue effort. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also arrived in Silkyara. “We have come to arouns. We are very close to you now,” he told the trapped workers through the communication system that uses the six-inch wide tube. The Chief Minister asked two workers, Gabbar Singh Negi and Saba Ahmad, about the condition of others and praised them for their morale. Three scientists from the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Roorkee, including tunnel expert R D Dwivedi, are also at the site. International tunnelling expert Arnold Dix said, “It seems we have reached the door and knocking at it.

 

We know people are at the other side of the door.” Till 6 pm on Wednesday, up to 44 metres of the escape pipe, had been inserted into the debris, according to an official statement. When the workers come out, they will be rushed in ambulances through a ‘green corridor’ under police escort to a 41-bed special ward set up at the community health centre in Chinyalisaur in Uttarkashi district. If needed, they will then be transferred to other medical facilities. The NDRF DG said the trapped workers appeared to be in good spirits. Once the rescue pipe breaks through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel, NDRF personnel plan to pull out the trapped workers one by one with the help of wheeled stretchers tied to ropes, a senior official said on Thursday. Workers trapped are likely to be rescued in the next few hours or by Friday, NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Thursday evening. The drilling work to pull out 41 trapped workers encountered obstacles, which resulted in a temporary stoppage of rescue efforts. “I expect that in the next few hours or by tomorrow, we will be successful in this operation,” Hasnain said. The NDMA member also said that the horizontal drilling to rescue workers may face 3-4 more hurdles. The trenchless team entered into pipe manually twice to confirm the clearance of the rescue pipe.