UTTARKASHI: Up to 52 metres of pipes have been placed through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. As efforts to free the 41 workers who are trapped there continue for the seventeenth day, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami stated on Tuesday. He informed reporters in Silkyara that the breakthrough point is 57 metres. Since Monday, twelve rat-hole mining specialists have been working horizontally through the final 10 or 12 metres of debris from the partially collapsed section of the under-construction tunnel on the Char Dham route in Uttarakhand. A massive auger machine that was drilling earlier became trapped in the debris on Friday at a depth of about 47 metres. Chris Cooper, the leader of the L&T team, stated early on Tuesday that “we have just crossed 50 metres.”It gave rise to hopes of an early evacuation because the rescuers only needed to go ten metres to gain an advantage. The speed of the operation, however, is contingent upon whether the rescuers face any obstacles during the excavation process, which is frequently complicated by various factors. Subsequently, Chief Minister Dhami declared, “Pipe has gone in up to 52 metres,” during a visit to the rescue operation site. It was 51 metres earlier. In front of me, it was propelled one metre farther. After pushing it two more metres to a height of 54 metres, one more pipe will be installed.” In response to a question about potential obstacles, he stated that there were no steel or iron girders in the way. The chief minister remarked, “Stones are getting in the way, but cutters are breaking them.” 800-mm diameter pipes are being inserted through the rubble by an auger machine while a competent team of labourers removes muck by hand using the rat-hole mining technique. 51 metres have been drilled, according to Praveen Yadav, who is in charge of cutting and removing the obstacles from the rubble. According to a worker from the Trenchless company, which is pushing the pipes with the auger machine, some positive news should be available by this evening if no obstacles are encountered. In the contentious and dangerous practise known as “rat-hole mining,” miners work in small groups to extract tiny amounts of coal by descending small burrows. Neeraj Khairwal, the nodal officer for the Uttarakhand government, made it apparent that the men being brought to the site were not rat-hole miners but rather specialists in the field. They will probably be split up into two or three-person teams. For brief intervals, each team will enter the steel chute that is part of the escape route. Expert in drilling rat holes Rajput Rai explained that one man will drill the hole, another will gather the debris with his hands, and a third will load it onto a trolley so it can be removed.