Rescue teams were not able to move even an inch closer to the 41 workers trapped in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi of Uttarakhand by Friday evening, as the entire day was taken up in fixing snags in the drilling machine and using radar to scan the debris ahead for any further obstacles. There are only ten metres of debris left between rescuers and the trapped workers, but officials say it is difficult to anticipate when this last leg of the operation will be completed. Some progress was made on alternative rescue efforts by boring vertically into the tunnel, as well as drilling efforts being made from the other end.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the tunnel site on Friday and also briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the operation, which on Friday was in its 13th day. The basic plan is to bore a hole in the debris, and push in wide pipes which are welded together, through which the workers can be brought back out. A senior official involved in the Silkyara-end operation recapped the progress so far: the auger drilling machine started work in the early hours of Wednesday, but had to stop that evening as it struck an iron lattice girder, one of the structural elements of the tunnel. Gas cutters removed this hurdle overnight. On Thursday, the auger machine pushed a ninth pipe in for just 1.8 metres, before vibrations were noticed and drilling was halted again at the 48-metre mark. “By Friday morning, the platform for the auger machine was strengthened by way of anchoring, bolting, concreting foundation, etc. But work couldn’t resume,” the official said.
A Ground Zero report in The Hindu said that inside the Silyara-Barkot-Bend tunnel, 41 men lived only on dry food — puffed rice and nuts — for nine days, until a pipe, 15 cm in diameter was pushed through the rubble, and some warm khichdi passed down in bottles. They were trapped 60 metres inside the tunnel from November 12 due to a landslide. The men had been working on the tunnel, to extend National Highway 134, and cut short the distance from Dharasu to Yamunotri by about 20 km and travel time by about an hour. The collapse was not uncharacteristic, say experts. On the winding highway up from Rishikesh to Silkyara, the mountains are fragile, as are man-made constructions on them. Piles of rocks, abandoned bricks, and plumes of dust cover the steep roads, remnants of devastating landslides and markers of human hyperactivity. Piles of stones are netted up and placed against cliff sides to prevent more loose sand and rock from falling. Experts from various countries including Thailand, Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. have been consulted and some are on the site to help with the rescue mission.
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