Escape passage drilling to rescue 41 workers trapped inside Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarkhand could not be resumed even after 20 hours of it being halted. The operation was put on a pause yesterday.

Rescuers say now the work will go on unhindered as all hurdles were cleared and thermal imaging radar detected no blockades ahead.

At the time of filing of this report, officials overseeing rescue operations at the collapsed tunnel site informed that drilling work which was paused on Thursday afternoon was yet to resume. NDRF and SDRF technicians were trying to cut and clear steel girdles and iron rods that obstructed the auger machine work. Apart from this, experts were also working to reset the launch-stage of auger machine that was unsettled due to reoccurring hurdles caused by the metallic girdles under the debris.

Officials, however, assured that drilling for escape passage will resume as soon as removal of obstacles happens. They informed that a special radar was also deployed by the experts to scan debris profile ahead of 46 metres for which drilling and insertion of MS steel pipe had been completed. Nearly 60 metres escape passage has to be made to reach trapped workers.

“We have been told that thermal scanning of debris profile was done with the help of a special radar to detect metallic or any other hard obstacle on the planned drilling path. Apparently, no obstacle has been detected in remaining part of the debris” said Arpan Yaduvanshi, SP Uttarkashi while talking to The statesman.

Horizontal drilling by American auger machine at Silkayara village-end of the tunnel has hardly moved ahead after November 22 till when 45 metres of escape passage work had been completed.

However, as claimed by Neeraj Khairwal, Uttarakhand government nodal officer for rescue operation, drilling was stopped the same evening owing to a big steel girdle rendering the auger machine dysfunctional. It took more than 10 hours to remove the girdles and resume drilling on November 23 morning. Auger machine stopped drilling again the same afternoon due to more metallic girdles and rods coming on the way.

“Once the obstruction is fully cleared escape passage drilling will go on unobstructed as no hurdle was detected by the radar beyond that. We are praying to the almighty to evacuate stranded workers soon” Yaduvanshi said.
As many as 41 construction workers are trapped on the other side of the collapsed tunnel for more than 12 days as a portion of it collapsed under a landslide on the early morning of November 12.