Uttarakhand Tunnel Rescue: Vertical Drilling Of 19.2 Metres Of 86 Metres Done

A day after an auger machine carrying out horizontal drilling broke down, drilling to create a vertical pathway from the top of the hill above the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand began on Sunday.

Vertical drilling of 19.2 metres was done on Sunday to create an alternative escape route for the 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel for two weeks, PTI reported citing an official.

Rescuers have to drill down 86 metres from above to reach the trapped workers out of which 19.2 metres of drilling have been completed so far.

On Sunday, NHIDCL MD Mahmood Ahmed said that it requires four days to pull the trapped workers out of the tunnel if they are no hurdles.

"The exercise is going on smoothly and if it goes like this without facing obstructions, we can hope to finish it in four days by November 30," he said.

The vertical approach was one of the at least five options on which preparatory work had begun some days back.

The trapped workers are in a built-up two-kilometre stretch of the tunnel. They are being sent food, medicines and other essentials through a six-inch wide pipe.

A communication system has also been set up and families occasionally talk to them.

The multi-agency rescue operation, initiated on November 12 after a section of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route collapsed due to a landslide, faced a setback on Saturday. The auger machine's blades became entangled in the debris, impeding the efforts to free the 41 trapped workers.