-
- Published: November 24, 2023 14:20
New Delhi: The rescue operation at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand is in final stages and if all goes well, all the 41 trapped workers would ‘walk free’ today, after almost two weeks.
The drilling work resumed this morning, after suffering a last-minute snag last night and is expected to drill through the debris in a few hours now. A senior official overseeing the operations confirmed that the high-intensity auger machine was back at work and one could hope to cut through the debris in a few hours from now.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team conducted a mock drill today morning, showcasing the movement of stretchers through the escape route/pipeline. This gives a fair insight into how the NDRF has planned to pull out the trapped workers once an escape route is ready to evict them.
In the video, the NDRF team could be seen pulling out one of their own colleague, as part of mock exercise. As the person makes a safe exit through the pipeline, the NDRF & other rescue team men also cheer and laud the endeavour.
#WATCH | | Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) tunnel rescue: NDRF demonstrates the movement of wheeled stretchers through the pipeline, for the rescue of 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara Tunnel once the horizontal pipe reaches the other side. pic.twitter.com/mQcvtmYjnk
— ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2023
The workers will be pulled out of the collapsed tunnel, one by one, on wheeled stretchers, through the big pipe.
Notably, the state administration has already put more than 40 ambulances on standby near the spot for speedy hospitalization of the trapped workers. A hospital with over 40 beds has also been readied where these workers, languishing in tunnel for more than 13 days, will be given immediate care and their various parameters monitored.
Why rescue work stopped at last moment?
The rescue work at Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel was expected to get over by Thursday but a last-minute technical snag put the spanner in the works. The American auger drilling machine has made significant progress, ever since brought at the spot.
The machine has drilled through the rubble upto 47 metres and was close to reach 57-metre debris until it hit a roadblock. According to reports, the 25-feet tonnne platform on which the high-intensity Auger machine was mounted developed some cracks and hence the rescue got hindered. The operation was halted for sometime and now after propping it up, it has again begun.
The heart-wrenching happened on November 12. A portion of the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Barkot in Uttarkashi region caved in. At least 41 workers got trapped inside, with 60-metre rubble accumulating inside, on the Silkyara side of tunnel. The workers have spent more than 12 nights inside the tunnel without much life-support.
As the agencies made no headyway for a week, despondency set in among their families but the successful insertion of a pipe for food & water supply rekindled the hopes. And, today, their successful evacuation looks very much a possibility.