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Dehradun: In a development, a fresh landslide disrupts efforts to rescue 40 labourers trapped in an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand for over 70 hours. Rescue officials had spent hours preparing a platform for the auger drilling machine to insert steel pipes through the rubble, but a landslide on Tuesday night forced them to dismantle the machine and start work on the platform again.
Efforts are underway to drill holes in the debris and insert 900 mm diameter pipes. The drilling machine would have helped create a passage for the labourers to come out of the tunnel which collapsed on Sunday morning. Officials said around 21 metres of slab blocking the tunnel has been abolished and a 19 metres passage is yet to be cleared.
Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela had earlier told reporters that the trapped labourers could be evacuated today.
On Sunday, a portion of the 4.5 kilometer long tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri highway collapsed. Under the Chardham Project, this tunnel is being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on Brahmakhal and Yamunotri National Highway.
The workers who managed to escape safely are trapped in a 400 meter buffer zone. This buffer zone is under 200 meters of rocky debris.
Initially, the rescue team passed a paper note through the pipe. When the paper went inside, the walkie talkie was slid down the same pipe. Because cellphone reception was impossible from behind the rock wall.
It is not yet clear how much time it will take to rescue the workers. NDRF or SDRF have not given any fixed time for the rescue operation.
There are eight 900-millimetre diameter pipes with a length of six metres each and five pipes of 800-millimetre diameter of the same length, the State Emergency Operation Centre said.
A part of the tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway caved in on Sunday following a landslide. The trapped workers have a buffer of around 400 metres to walk and breathe, officials said.
The rescue teams have also successfully established communication with the workers with Walkie-Talkies. Initial contact was made via a note on a scrap of paper, but later rescuers managed to connect using radio handsets. One of these laborers even talked to his son for a few minutes through the pipe which was being used for oxygen supply.
