Twelve specialists in rat-hole mining have been called upon to engage in manual drilling and excavation to clear the final stretch of debris, approximately 10 to 12 meters long, blocking the collapsed section of the under-construction tunnel along Uttarakhand’s Char Dham route.

Initially, a substantial auger machine was tasked with this drilling, but it became lodged in the rubble last Friday, prompting officials to shift their focus to an alternate approach: drilling down from above the tunnel.

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Currently, approximately 40% of the necessary 86-meter vertical drilling has been completed.

Three days ago, an auger mission which was being used to drill to reach the workers broke after which manual drilling is on.

Notably, 41 workers are trapped inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel for the last 16 days. The incident took place on November 12, 2023. Since then, the NDRF is on the rescue mission to evacuate the workers.