Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 23: After a setback on Wednesday night, the rescue operation to bring out the 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel resumed on Thursday morning after an iron mesh that had come in the path of the auger machine drilling an escape path was removed.
The authorities are hopeful that the rescue team would be able to reach the trapped workers by early Friday morning but Member of the National Disaster Management Authority, Lt General (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain said the rescue operation was like a “war” and no specific timelines should be assumed by anyone.
The NDMA Member said this operation is just like a war situation where one keeps guessing about enemy moves. He further mentioned that in this operation ‘Himalayan geology’ was the enemy. Many experts were giving opinions about the time by which the operation was expected to be completed, but “remember these operations are like a war. These operations should not be given a timeline. In wars, we don’t know how will the enemy react,” he said.
The Director General of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Atul Karwal, which has been given the task to bring out the trapped workers once the rescue pipe was laid, said they have planned to pull them out on wheeled stretchers one by one through the big pipe.
The rescuers had also considered the option of making the workers crawl out one by one. Their health condition, however, may prevent them from crawling out on their own, following 12 days of living under the debris of the tunnel without any natural light and full meals, though they have been given supplies via small “lifeline” pipes.
The NDRF personnel will slide in through the pipe and once they reach the workers, they would use the stretchers to send out workers one by one, Mr Karwal said. Every worker would be made to lie low on the stretcher to prevent their limbs from scrapping the welded pipe’s metal underside while NDRF personnel pull the stretcher with a rope, officials said.
“These 800-mm pipes have a width of nearly 32 inches, which is enough. Even if we get a width of 22-24 inches, we can pull out people through them. Our men have carried out rehearsals for the exercise,” Mr Karwal said.
As the auger machine drills through, pipes are being pushed through the debris. Once a pipe is all in, another is welded to it. In this manner, the escape route is being prepped for the trapped workers out of their long confinement. Welders have been flown in from Delhi to put together the final stretch of the pipe. They will get to work once the drilling ends. “The next pipe is being welded now. We plan to drill two more pipes now so that we achieve a length of up to 60 metres through the rubble to get some extended space,” Mr Karwal said.
The NDRF chief said Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami talked to the trapped workers and they appeared to be in good spirits. “People who work in tunnels are mentally tough and they are aware of the huge efforts being carried out to evacuate them. So they are optimistic,” Mr Karwal said.
A 2-km section of the tunnel where concrete work has been completed is the focus of the rescue efforts as this secured section has electricity, water supply and a new six-inch-diameter pipe to deliver cooked food and medicines, apart from the existing four-inch-diameter lifeline. Using the second lifeline, the trapped workers are being given foods like roti, subzi, khichdi, daliya, oranges and bananas, and medicines and other essentials such T-shirts, undergarments, toothpaste and soap.
As part of the post-rescue 41 ambulances have been arranged at the spot of Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel where 41 workers remain trapped, an official said. Mukesh Nautiyal, the Project Manager of Operation 108 Ambulance initiative said that out of 41 ambulances, 31 ambulances are of ‘108’ while the other 10 have been provided by the administration. A 41-bed make-shift hospital has also been laid out outside the tunnel in case of any exigency besides keeping helicopters stand-by to airlift emergency cases.
Rescue agencies, which were hopeful of getting the trapped 41 workers in Silkyara free, on Thursday told media at 2 p.m. that only 1.8 metres of drilling could take place in the last 18 hours due to the hurdle that came on the machine’s way, Neeraj Khairwal, nodal officer of Silkyara tunnel rescue (Uttarakhand) said. The pipe is pushed up to around 47 meters and 10 more meters are needed to be covered to reach to the workers, he had said.
After pushing in a camera on Tuesday, officials said they have also been successful in establishing an audio communication channel after sending a microphone and speaker to the other end of the six-inch supply pipe.
