Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 16: The authorities resumed the operations to rescue the 40 trapped workers in the collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand with renewed vigour on the fifth day on Thursday with heavier drilling machine installed and the foreign expert consultants arriving at the scene.
Official admitted that the rescue operations had been delayed than what it was originally expected but now the authorities expect to complete the operations in the next two to three days. “The work may be completed earlier, but the government is giving 2-3 days at the outset is case of any unforeseen difficulties,” official sources said.
For over 96 hours, the workers have been confined within the tunnel, their lives hanging by a thread. On November 12, the Silkyara Tunnel project suffered a collapse, trapping 40 construction workers within the rubble.
The new heavy duty drilling machine flown in by the IAF from Delhi began boring through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel on Thursday in a fresh attempt to create an escape passage for trapped workers. Workers outside the Silkyara tunnel performed a puja before the America-made auger machine began work.
The trapped workers are being provided with essential supplies of food and medicines. Rescue teams are maintaining regular communication with the workers, ensuring their spirits remain unbroken and their hope alive.
Elite rescue teams from Thailand and Norway, including the one that successfully rescued the trapped children from a cave in Thailand in 2018, have joined forces to aid in the ongoing rescue operation.
The deployment of an ‘American auger’ machine, flown in from New Delhi, inside the tunnel marked a turning point in the rescue operation. This specialised equipment is anticipated to accelerate the clearing process and bring the trapped workers closer to safety.
The ‘American auger’ machine arrived in disassembled components at the Chinyalisaur airport, situated over 30 kilometres from the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham pilgrimage route. The plan involves employing the machine to excavate a passage through the debris of the collapsed tunnel section.
Once the passage is clear, 800-mm and 900-mm diametre segments of mild steel pipes will be installed, one at a time. Upon completion of this procedure, the workers trapped on the other side of the rubble will be able to crawl to safety.
Yesterday, the rescue operations were hindered by a fresh landslide after over 70 hours of relentless operations. Rescue teams had invested hours in constructing a platform for the ‘American auger’, however, the fresh landslide forced them to disassemble the machine and restart platform construction.
The under-construction tunnel which collapsed on Sunday morning is part of the ambitious Char Dham project, a national infrastructure initiative to enhance connectivity to the Hindu pilgrimage sites of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri.
The Union Minister VK Singh visited the site and said it may take 2-3 more days for the task to be completed. The minister of state for road transport and highways said the rescue could be finished sooner, even as early as Friday, but the government was keeping a longer timeline in mind to account for unexpected difficulties.
The minister’s statement came even as a faster and more powerful ‘American auger’ machine began work at Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi to push through a pipe that will be used to rescue the construction workers. He also confirmed that the rescue teams have spoken to foreign experts, including a firm that helped save 12 children and their football coach who were stranded in a cave in Thailand
Addressing a press conference at the site, Mr Singh said in Hindi, “Our priority is to ensure the trapped workers are safe and are rescued at the earliest. Everyone, from the Prime Minister to the chief minister, is helping in every way they can. We faced some problems with the machine that was being used earlier and a faster, more powerful, machine has now been deployed.”
“All suggestions are being considered. We are taking the help of foreign experts as well as those from within India. I have spoken to the labourers. Their morale is high and they know that the government is making efforts to rescue them,” he added.
Some teams involved in the rescue have contacted a company from Thailand which had helped save members of a junior association football team and their coach who were trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non, a cave system in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, in 2018. Help is also being taken from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute for suggestions on how to carry out operations inside the tunnel.
The National Disaster Response Force Director General Atul Karwal said the thickness of the debris, which was initially 40-50 metres, has gone up to 70 metres because more rubble has fallen.
G.L. Nath, the Public Relations Officer of Navayuga Engineering Company which is building the tunnel on behalf of the NHIDCL, said the labourers were are being supplied necessary items every half an hour and they were healthy.
