Uttarkashi, Nov 27: On the sixteenth day of the operations, a delegation headed by Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pramod Kumar Mishra assessed the status of the ongoing efforts to free 41 trapped workers in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. Pramod Kumar Mishra, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary SS Sandhu, and Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla examined the tunnel’s construction. The food supplies sent to the labourers stranded inside the tunnel were another question the Principal Secretary asked. The families of the stranded workers were also addressed by PK Mishra.According to Chris Cooper, a specialist in microtunnelling, all of the auger machine’s debris has been removed, and in a few hours, manual drilling will begin to release the trapped labourers. Using a plasma cutter, the auger machine that was being used to drill the tunnel horizontally and became lodged inside the pipe was cut and removed on Monday morning. Lieutenant General Harpal Singh (Retd), a former Army Engineer-in-Chief, defended the manual method by stating that it is the only remaining option for rescuing the trapped workers.Singh claimed that he arrived at the scene to offer technical assistance and support for the ongoing rescue efforts. He continued by saying that every effort is being made to expedite the rescue procedure. Officials say that in order to expedite the rescue, the debris inside the pipe will be removed by hand drilling using the rat hole mining technique. In coal mining, the rat hole mining technique is typically employed, particularly in areas with challenging topography.Six experts have arrived at the location to start the manual drilling process, and eleven individuals will manually remove the debris from the 800 mm tunnel pipe. Along with civilians, the team consists of engineers from the Madras Engineering Group of the Indian Army. Additionally, attempts are being made to enter from the Barkot side of the tunnel, which is the other mouth of the tunnel, in cooperation with the Border Road Organisation and other agencies. Just 10 metres of the 500 metres have been covered after four blasts carried out under BRO’s supervision.Additionally, the SJVN will carry out the construction of a small tunnel that the rescuers intend to build along the left side of the tunnel. It will be horizontal and perpendicular to the Silkyara tunnel. On November 12, a section of the tunnel collapsed, trapping 41 labourers within the still-under-construction 60-meter stretch on the Silkyara side of the tunnel.
