Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue: As Auger Machine Gets Stuck Again, Rescuers Explore Manual Drilling

The unprecedented rescue operation to safely evacuate the 41 construction workers who have been trapped inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel since November 12 was delayed yet again due to a technical glitch.

The drilling operation was halted on Friday evening, a little after it started, as the auger drilling machine hit a metal girder.

REUTERS

What happened on Friday

The drilling process had just resumed nearly a day after cracks appeared in the platform on which the drilling machine rests.

The drilling resumed after officials resolved the issue, but the operation ran into another setback.

As the machine drills, six-metre sections of a steel pipe are welded together and pushed into the narrow passage. Once this steel chute crosses the stretch of debris of the collapsed portion, the trapped workers would be pulled out on wheeled stretchers.

AFP

How much progress has been made

Before the brief drilling period on Friday, 46.8 metres of the 800 mm wide steel pipe had been pushed into the drilled passage -¨C out of the collapsed stretch estimated to be about 60 metres long. The six-inch-wide tube for supplying workers with food and other essential items had travelled 57 metres.

Rescue workers suggested in the evening that the drill bit was now being pulled out through the passage already bored by the machine.

According to Lt General (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority, there is no obstacle in the next 5 metres at Uttarkashi's Silkyara tunnel.

He said that after the auger is moved to 5 metres, the ground-penetrating radar will be used again to detect obstacles in the next 5 metres.

"Using ground penetrating radar, it has been detected that there is no obstacle in the next 5 metres on our path. We continue to use this to detect obstacles, if any. There is hope that the movement of the augor is done and will be smooth until 5 meters and again, this ground-penetrating radar will be used," Hasnain said.

AFP

When will rescue operation resume?

The operation is expected to resume on Saturday, and rescuers are considering switching to manual drilling, which will likely take much more time.

According to officials, manual drillers will get to work once the US-made, heavy-duty Auger drilling machine is removed from the pipeline through which the trapped workers will be brought out.

Manual drillers will work to cut through the remaining rubble that separates the rescuers from the workers and enable the pipeline insertion through the further few metres that are yet to be covered.

Success could soon be achieved in taking the Auger driller out of the pipeline, officials informed further, adding that the heavy-duty drillers could now be moved back by 22 metres.

For more news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.