Efforts are underway to rescue 40 labourers who have been trapped for two days inside a section of a collapsed under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi. On Tuesday, rescue workers commenced the operation by inserting broad steel pipes through the debris in an effort to save them.
Drilling to insert the pipes has begun with the help of an “auger machine”, Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela told reporters.
“If everything goes as planned, the trapped labourers will be evacuated by Wednesday,” he said after visiting the tunnel and taking an update on the operations from officials at the site.
Most of the day went into preparing a platform inside the tunnel to position the auger machine for drilling through the rubble. The drilling machine and the pipes arrived at the site early on Tuesday.
The plan is to push through both 800 mm and 900mm diametre sections of mild steel pipes, one after the other, into the rubble using drilling equipment and create an escape passage for the workers who, the officials said, are safe and being provided with oxygen, water, food packets and medicines through tubes.
There are eight 900-millimetre diametre pipes with a length of six metres each and five pipes of 800 millimetre diametre of the same length, the State Emergency Operation Centre said.
“According to the latest update, all 40 labourers trapped inside are safe and sound,” Superintendent of Police (Uttarkashi) Arpan Yaduvanshi told reporters after a visit to the site. He said some medicines have been supplied as one of the trapped workers was feeling nauseous.
The son of Gabbar Singh Negi, one of the trapped labourers, was allowed to speak to his father for a few seconds on Tuesday.
“He said they are safe. He asked us not to worry,” said Akash Singh Negi.
A local priest was asked to perform a puja for the early and safe evacuation of the trapped workers.
A part of the tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway caved in on Sunday following a landslide. The 30-metre collapsed section is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side, the State Emergency Operation Centre in Dehradun said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is constantly taking updates on the progress of rescue operations, the statement said.