Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursday visited the under-construction road tunnel where three workers have been trapped since September 12.
The Chief Minister spent more than an hour at the spot and reviewed the ongoing massive rescue operation, involving the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the Army.
So far, the rescue personnel have managed to established contact with two workers — Mani Ram and Satish Kumar. The whereabouts of the third worker, Hirdya Ram, is still unknown.
Three labourers have been trapped since Saturday evening when the under-construction tunnel of Kiratpur-Manali four-lane road project collapsed and blocked the passage.
Eatables, including dry fruit and glucose, were supplied to the two workers through a pipe inserted inside the tunnel. Contact was established with two workers through a microphone inserted through the pipe after vertical drilling into the tunnel, an official said.
To assess the situation, the Chief Minister went inside the tunnel nearer the point where it was blocked and took stock of the situation. He expressed satisfaction over the rescue operations and consoled the family members of the three trapped labourers. The CM separately talked to each of the family members and assured of all possible help from the Government. He also urged them to keep patience as it would take some time to bring them out.
The Chief Minister was shown the audiovisual clips of the Satish and Mani Ram who were safe inside except the third person Hridey Ram for whom the search operations were being carried out by drilling horizontally on war-footing.
As much as 30 metres of horizontal insertion has been done and 10 to 15 metres drilling needs to be done more, said Manasi Sahay Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, Bilaspur.