According to Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, the pipe-laying operation inside the Silkyara tunnel, where efforts are being made to free 41 trapped workers, has been completed.
“With the blessing of Baba Baukh Nag Ji, prayers of crores of countrymen and the tireless work of the rescue teams engaged in the rescue operation, the work of laying pipes in the tunnel to take out the workers has been completed. Soon all the labourers will be taken out,” CM Dhami said in a post on X.
During a press briefing earlier today, the Nodal Officer for the Silkyara rescue operation and Secretary to the Uttarakhand government, Neeraj Khairwal, also said that if there are no more hurdles, the rescuers are anticipating an early evacuation of the trapped labourers.
Meanwhile, ambulances, NDRF personnel, SDRF and several other agencies have been deployed at the entrance of the tunnel. The NDRF team will be going inside the tunnel to bring out the trapped labourers one by one, as per official sources.
Micro tunnelling expert Chris Cooper said that the vertical drilling works have been stopped and they are focusing on manual drilling which is progressing on a swift pace.
He added that the team is expecting to see some results by evening around 5 pm.