On Tuesday morning, rescue teams reported that workers manually excavating the collapsed road tunnel are now only five meters away from reaching the 41 men who have been trapped for 17 days. A breakthrough is anticipated to occur “soon.”
“The escape passage has been prepared up to 52 metres (170 feet) inside the tunnel, and passage will breakthrough at 57 metres (187 feet)… the rescue operation is expected to be completed soon,” chief minister of Uttarakhand state Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters at the site, without giving a specific timeframe.
A skilled team of workers began removing the muck by hand using the rat-hole mining technique on Monday while 800-mm diameter pipes were being pushed through the rubble by an auger machine.
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Tunnel Rescue Updates: Progress in Depth and Road Repairs
“The pipe has reached a depth of 52 meters, previously it was at 51 meters. I witnessed it being advanced by one meter, and it is scheduled to be pushed two meters more to reach 54 meters. Following that, an additional pipe will be laid,” explained Dhami.
Government has also undertaken road repair work near the Silkyara tunnel to facilitate smooth movement of ambulances while rescue operation is underway.
When asked whether there were hurdles on the way, he said steel and iron girders were not being encountered. “Stones are coming in the way but they are being broken using cutters,” the chief minister said.
A Trenchless company worker using the auger machine mentioned that, barring any unforeseen obstacles, there is a possibility of receiving positive news by this evening.
Challenges in Rescue Operation: Rat-Hole Mining Technique and Setbacks
Rat-hole mining is a controversial and hazardous procedure in which miners in small groups go down narrow burrows to excavate small quantities of coal.
Uttarakhand government’s nodal officer Neeraj Khairwal made it clear that the men brought to the site were not rat-hole miners but people who are experts in the technique.
They are likely to be divided into teams of two or three. Each team will go into the steel chute laid into the escape passage for brief periods. Rajput Rai, a rat-hole drilling expert, said one man will do the drilling, another collects the rubble with his hands and the third places it on a trolley to be pulled out.
On Friday, the rescue operation encountered a setback when the auger drill, a tool resembling a corkscrew with a rotary blade at its forefront, became lodged in the debris. This led officials to abandon the 25-tonne machine.
The tunnel is part of the Char Dham highway, one of Modi’s most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through 890km of roads.
Officials have not disclosed the cause of the cave-in that trapped the men as they approached the conclusion of their night shift. However, the area is susceptible to landslides, earthquakes, and floods.
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