Efforts to rescue the 41 trapped labourers in Silkyara tunnel entered a critical phase on Tuesday after being stalled since November 17 with rescuers creating space for a vertical drilling platform by cutting into the mountain above the tunnel. Officials estimated that if all goes to plan, the horizontal drilling process should be over in two or two and a half days, but alternative routes might take a maximum of 15 days.
The workers were supplied veg pulao, matar-paneer, and chapatis slapped with butter for dinner Tuesday night through a food pipe stuck through the collapsed part of the structure.
First visuals of the 41 trapped workers surfaced on Tuesday after rescuers pushed a six-inch pipeline through 53 metres of rubble to reach them. The visuals were captured through an endoscopic camera pushed through this pipeline. The visuals that showed that the workers were doing fine brought hope to relatives who are camping there for days.
National Disaster Management Authority member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain and Road Transport and Highways secretary Anurag Jain told reporters in Delhi that the focus was back on horizontal drilling. Jain said the work started in the morning in Silkyara, and if everything goes well it should be over in two or two and a half days, but alternative routes might take a maximum of 15 days.
Rescuers also set off two blasts at the Balkot-end of the under-construction tunnel on the Char Dham route, beginning the process of drilling another tunnel – an alternative to the Silkyara-end option – to evacuate workers trapped inside for nine days. But this approach could take up to 40 days.
Forty-one labourers were trapped ten days back in the under-construction tunnel when a stretch collapsed on November 12, cutting off the workers beyond it.
