For The 41 Men Trapped Inside The Silkyara Tunnel, Light Is Just Metres Away
The massive rescue operation to save the 41 construction workers who have been trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi entered its final stages on Thursday.
The multi-agency rescue team still has to drill just around 10 more metres through the rubble to lay the last steel pipe to create an escape route for the construction workers who had been inside the collapsed tunnel since November 12.
How close is the rescue?
The drilling of 800 mm diameter steel pipes was briefly halted for some hours on Wednesday night after an iron mesh came in the way of the auger machine.
Till 6 pm on Wednesday, up to 44 metres of the escape pipe had been inserted into the debris.
The last pipe to prepare the escape passage for the trapped workers was being pushed in through the rubble.
"Rescue operation is almost in the last stage, I hope the result will come in 1-2 hours...pipeline is being inserted to take out the workers...the steel pieces that were stuck in the debris were cut and removed," Girish Singh Rawat, one of the members of the rescue operation team, said.
What is the evacuation plan?
A team of doctors will enter the tunnel first and examine the trapped workers before bringing them out.
The evacuation will be carried out by a 15-man strong NDRF team led by a commandant.
The NDRF team has conducted a mock drill on how they will go through the pipe to the other side of the rubble where the labourers are stuck, NDRF second-in-command Ravi Shankar Badhani told PTI.
According to the evacuation plan, wheel-fitted low-height stretchers will be taken to the other side, where workers are trapped.
The men from the National Disaster Response Force, wearing oxygen kits, will crawl through the pipe carrying a stretcher, a rope, and oxygen kits for workers.
"The stretcher will be tied with ropes from both sides, and one by one, these workers will be taken out," an officer told PTI.
A team of NDRF will stay put on the other side till every worker is evacuated, the officer said.
What happens after the workers are pulled out?
A 41-bed separate ward has been readied at the Community Health Centre in Chinyalisaur for Silkyara tunnel evacuees, and 41 ambulances wait outside the tunnel to rush them there as soon as they crawl out.
The workers have been trapped since November 12, when the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Barkot got blocked due to debris falling in a 60-meter stretch on the Silkyara side.
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