Today, 28 November, is the 17th day of 41 laborers trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel Collapse of Uttarakhand. After facing setbacks in machine drilling efforts, manual drilling is now being done. On one side, the rescue operation is going on at a rapid pace, while on the other side, PM Modi appealed to pray for the workers. Let us see what are the new updates in the tunnel accident.
Manual drilling completed up to 2 meters
Earlier drilling work was being done through auger machine, but after the auger machine got stuck in the pipe, its stuck parts were cut out and now manual drilling of the remaining part is being done. So far, about 2 meters of manual drilling work has been completed. In this, first the debris is being removed by drilling by hand, then the pipe is pushed through the machine.
Dr. Neeraj Khairwal, Secretary in Uttarakhand Government said, “It takes only 5 minutes to push with the machine, but it may take 4 to 5 hours to remove the first 1 meter of debris manually, inside, and it is also possible that it can be done in half an hour. It depends on the obstructions inside. Nothing can be said yet about how much time it will take to evacuate the workers.”
According to micro tunneling expert Chris Cooper, the work went very well last night. 50 meters have been crossed and now about 5-6 meters are left to go.
Vertical drilling work continues
Work is also going on on Plan B to evacuate the workers. In this, vertical drilling is being done through a machine from the top of the hill. A total of 86 meters of drilling is to be done, out of which about 36 meters has been done.
Officials are trying to evacuate the workers, but the weather can become a big challenge. The Meteorological Department has issued an alert of rain and snowfall. If it rains, the work of vertical drilling may be affected.
PM Narendra Modi said in his tweet yesterday on the occasion of Dev Diwali and Guru Nanak Jayanti that today when we are praying to Gods and Goddesses, talking about the welfare of humanity, then we should include those labor brothers in our prayers. We also have to give space to those who are stuck in a tunnel in Uttarakhand for the last two weeks.
He said in another tweet that the government and all the agencies together are leaving no stone unturned to get them out of the crisis, but we have to complete this relief and rescue operation with great caution.
Let us tell you that during the tunnel construction in Silkyara, the workers got trapped in the tunnel on 12th November, the day of Diwali. Suddenly a part of the tunnel collapsed and 41 workers got trapped inside it, since then efforts are on to rescue them.
