The continuous drilling operation to free the 40 trapped workers inside the Silkyara tunnel was halted on Saturday after the rescuers dug 25 meters into the debris, a senior official announced. Six days, including Saturday, have passed since a portion of the Silkyara tunnel collapsed on November 12. The drilling project to release the trapped workers has been temporarily halted, Anshu Manish Khulko, the director of the tunnel-building company NHIDCL, informed ANI over the phone.
When asked whether a problem with the equipment being used for the rescue operation was the reason for stopping the drilling, Khulko responded, “There was no fault in the machine.” “For the previous three days, efforts had been made to make it possible for a pipeline to be inserted in order to free the trapped workers. So far, only 25 meters of the pipe-laying work have been finished,” he said.
He added that after assessing the state of the ongoing rescue efforts, the managing director of NHIDCL is anticipated to arrive at the scene on Saturday and provide more information.
After hitting a rock face on Friday, the Auger machine used for the drilling job ceased to operate. But in the afternoon, the machine started up again.
It is anticipated that a second heavy-duty drilling machine that was requested from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore will arrive at the tunnel site later on Saturday. In the early hours of November 12, the tunnel that was being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway collapsed.
A media statement issued on Friday by the company constructing the tunnel, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, stated that 40 meters of the collapsed tunnel are currently being excavated using shotcreting, or concrete spraying, and that a cavity has formed 10 meters above the crown on both the left and right sides, as well as the beginnings of a chimney formation along the tunnel.
Additionally, the statement stated that a shotcrete machine has been moved from RVNL Package-ll to the work site. Under the Radi pass area, the 4531-meter Silkyara Tunnel will connect the Gangotri and Yamunotri axis as part of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ Chardham Project. Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd is working with NHIDCL to build the tunnel, which will cost Rs 853.79 crore.
