Uttarkashi tunnel accident: Drilling has started trapped workers likely to be rescued by Wednesday. The operation to rescue 40 workers trapped in an under-construction tunnel on the Chardham route in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi continued for the third day.
Uttarkashi tunnel accident
As drilling has begun to lay pipes with the help of ‘auger machine’, officials believe the trapped workers are likely to be rescued by Wednesday.
Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela said drilling has begun with the help of ‘auger machine’ to lay pipes. “If everything goes as planned, the trapped workers will be rescued by Wednesday,” he said after visiting the tunnel and taking stock of operations from officials at the site.
Most of the day was spent preparing a platform inside the tunnel to set up the auger machine for drilling through the debris. The drilling machine and pipes reached the site early Tuesday.
Officials said the plan is to push both 800- and 900-millimetre diameter sections of mild steel pipes into the debris one after the other using drilling equipment and create an escape route for the workers, who are safe and are being provided oxygen, water, food packets and medicines through tubes.
The State Emergency Operations Centre said there are eight 900-millimetre diameter pipes with a length of six metres and five 800-millimetre diameter pipes of the same length.
Uttarkashi Tunnel Collapse: Rescue operation continues in Silkyara tunnel for 50 hours! Know what has happened so far.
Latest update on Uttarkashi tunnel collapse
- Rescue workers on Tuesday began the process of inserting wide steel pipes into the debris of the collapsed under-construction building.
- According to the latest updates, all the 40 labourers trapped inside are safe and sound, Superintendent of Police (Uttarkashi) Arpan Yaduvanshi told reporters after visiting the spot. He said some medicines have been supplied as one of the trapped workers was feeling nauseous.
- The Uttarakhand government has formed a six-member expert committee to investigate the incident.
- The son of Gabbar Singh Negi, one of the trapped labourers, was allowed to speak to his father for a few seconds on Tuesday. “He said they are safe. He asked us not to worry,” Akash Singh Negi told PTI.
- A local priest was asked to perform puja for the speedy and safe evacuation of the trapped workers.
- The State Emergency Operations Centre in Dehradun said the 30-metre collapsed portion is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side.
- Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha had earlier said that authorities have set a target of rescuing the trapped workers by Tuesday night or Wednesday.
- Navyuga Engineering Company Limited official GL Nath appealed to everyone not to enter the tunnel and not disrupt rescue efforts. “Only those people should enter the tunnel whose services or assistance are needed in the ongoing rescue operations. Local political leaders are repeatedly coming to the tunnel and causing us a lot of trouble. I appeal to them not to do so. Our priority is to evacuate the trapped workers safely,” he said.
- The State Emergency Operations Centre said an expert team of five engineers from the irrigation department is on the spot to monitor the process of laying mild steel pipes through the debris.
- A team of 160 rescue workers from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Roads Organisation, Rapid Action Force and the Health Department have been at the spot since Sunday and are working to reach the trapped workers.
- Contact is being maintained with the stranded labourers and the assurance that a major rescue operation is being carried out by various agencies to evacuate them has also boosted their morale, said Colonel (Retd) Sandeep Sudehra, Executive Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL). NHIDCL is the agency engaged in the construction of the tunnel.
- Uttarkashi Chief Medical Officer RCS Panwar said a six-bed temporary hospital has been set up near the tunnel and 10 ambulances with medical teams have been deployed to provide immediate medical care to the stranded workers after their evacuation.
- According to the list of stranded workers released by the District Emergency Operations Centre, 15 are from Jharkhand, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five from Odisha, four from Bihar, three from West Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam and one from Himachal Pradesh.
- An official statement said a team of experts led by the Director of the Uttarakhand Landslide Mitigation and Management Centre is examining the affected portion of the tunnel and the hill above to ascertain the reasons for the collapse.