A new powerful drilling machine has been pressed into service in the third attempt by rescue officials to create a passage large enough to evacuate 40 workers who have been trapped behind a 70-metre-thick wall of debris inside a 4.5km-long tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.
The workers have been trapped for over 120 hours inside the tunnel.
According to National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), the new “state-of-the-art” auger machine was able to drill through nine metres in the first six hours of its operation which started at 10.30am on Thursday morning.
As per NHIDCL, it will take at least another two days to reach the workers.
There have been concerns over the safety and health of the workers trapped with low oxygen and scant nourishment is mounting.
As of midnight on Thursday, the workers were trapped in the tunnel behind a cave-in for 114 hours, even as NHIDCL officials assured the families of those trapped that all were alive and were being provided supplies through a water pipe, HT reported.
A portion of the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Dandalgaon on the Yamunotri National Highway (NH) collapsed on Sunday, trapping 40 workers around 260m from the tunnel entrance at the Silkyara end. After four days of wait, the families and other workers staged a protest outside the tunnel, alleging that the construction company Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL), and rescue teams were not working fast enough to rescue the trapped men.
The rescue operation is being managed by the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and Uttarakhand Disaster Management Authority, while the drilling is being done by NHIDCL. NDRF officials at the spot said they are awaiting the completion of the drilling after which they can enter and bring back the workers.
In the first four days of operations, two rescue attempts to cut through the wall of rock blocking the tunnel had failed — to the despair of the families and colleagues of the workers.
Aakash Negi (17), the son of trapped worker Gabbar Singh Negi (51) of Kotdwar, said he once again spoke to his father through a pipe on Thursday morning. “Every time we speak to him, he says he is fine. But I know he is living in a difficult situation. Hope he is taken out by the rescuers very soon. Had the rescuers brought the bigger machine much earlier, it would have saved precious time,” he said.
