Uttarkashi Tunnel Collapse: To rescue the trapped workers, a new heavy and powerful drilling machine has started to build a large passage for the workers to escape and has already bored through 12 metres of rubble of the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route in Uttarakhand on Thursday.
With such significant achievement, this new machine has raised hopes for the rescue of 40 workers trapped inside for over four days.
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A six-metre section of a steel pipe had been inserted into the bored passage. Another section was being welded into it and the he plan is to insert 800 mm- and 900 mm diameter pipes – one after the other — with the help of the giant drill till an escape passage is created for the workers stranded beyond the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel, according to officials.
Earlier, a smaller drilling machine failed to do the job, IAF’s C-130 Hercules planes brought the US-made auger machine, in parts, from Delhi to an airport 30 kilometres away on Wednesday.
Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh, who visited the rescue site, set “two or three days” as the “outer limit” for the new machine to get the job done.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that all tunnel projects in the state will now be reviewed, appearing more optimistic. “I have been told that the new drilling machine has already penetrated five to seven metres through the debris,” Dhami told reporters earlier.
The trapped workers are safe, and being supplied with oxygen, medicines, food items and water through pipes, Navayuga Engineering Company’s spokesperson G L Nath said. The company is building the tunnel on behalf of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
Union minister Singh talked to the trapped workers. “The people’s morale is high,” he told reporters later, adding that they knew that the government is putting in all efforts to get them out. The minister said the site where the tunnel is being constructed has been stable for the past four and a half years.
In Dehradun, the chief minister Dhami said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation. The Uttarakhand government has decided to review all under-construction tunnels in the state.
A six-bed makeshift health facility has been set up and 10 ambulances with doctors also stationed outside the tunnel to provide immediate medical care to the trapped workers on their evacuation, officials said.
