With at least 40 workers — 41, according to the latest count — trapped for a week inside a collapsed tunnel in Uttarkashi, a town in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, the rescue strategy now includes a vertical hole to be drilled down from the top of the hill under which they are stuck.
In a desperate fight, officials yesterday began preparations to drill the vertical hole. The workers have survived until now with limited food and communication.
Officials held out hope last night that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) would be able to drill the vertical hole, creating an alternative route to the under-construction Silkyara tunnel, by this afternoon.
Bhaskar Khulbe, former adviser to the prime minister and now OSD in the Uttarakhand government, said in Silkyara that concerted efforts would produce good results in four-five days. “But if the gods are kind enough, it could happen even earlier than that,” he said.
A team of officials from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and experts at the site have decided to work simultaneously on five plans to rescue the 41 men. “The experts were one in their view that rather than working on just one plan, we should work at the same time on five plans to reach the trapped workers as early as possible,” Khulbe said at a press conference.
These plans include drilling from one end to the other on both Silkyara and Barkot sides; vertical drilling from the top of the tunnel; and perpendicular drilling. Efforts to build a platform to start vertical drilling through the top of the tunnel had begun already, he said.
Speaking to the media yesterday, BRO’s Major Naman Narula said, “We are trying to make a vertical track from the top of the tunnel. A point at the top of the tunnel has been identified from where drilling will start soon. This track is about 1,000-1,100 metres long. Simultaneously, we’re also conducting a survey to know how much time it will take. As per our calculations, the track should be ready by tomorrow afternoon.”
A high-performance drilling machine was brought in from Indore yesterday to pierce through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route and was being assembled before being deployed to resume drilling, officials at the site said.
The Silkyara tunnel, about 30km from the district headquarters of Uttarkashi and a seven-hour drive from the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun, is part of the ambitious Char Dham all-weather road project of the central government. It is being constructed under the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
The tunnel collapsed around 5.30am last Sunday. One week on, as the hours ticked by, the desperation of families waiting outside mounted. Rescue operations had been suspended since Friday afternoon, when a US-made auger machine deployed to drill and push in pipes through the rubble to prepare an escape passage for the workers developed a snag.
By the time the drilling was halted, the auger machine had drilled up to 24 metres through the rubble spread over a 60-metre area inside the tunnel.
The Union government also held a high-level meeting yesterday where the five options to rescue the workers were discussed with different agencies assigned with specific alternatives to work on, sources said.
NHIDCL MD Mahmood Ahmed has been made in-charge for co-ordination with all the central agencies and has been stationed in Silkyara, sources said.
While families back home and those gathered at the mouth of the tunnel counted the hours, officials waged their own frantic battle against time.
“One option is to make a four-to-six inch long hole, which will help in providing essential items to the trapped people. If the conditions are favourable, a three-feet diameter hole will also be made, so people will be able to come out. This road is about 900 metres long. Hopefully, the road will be ready by tomorrow morning,” said RS Rao of the Directorate General Border Roads (DGBR) last night. Four machines were currently put to work and four more were arriving, he added.
Asked about the rescue work being suspended at the tunnel for so long, Khulbe said it was time to look ahead. “We should think of what we can do now. The time is not appropriate to discuss what happened in the past.”
The ONGC, RVNL, Satluj Jal Vikas Nigam Ltd, the BRO, and the state PWD besides the NHIDCL would be the agencies carrying out different responsibilities to establish early access to the trapped workers, he said.
Deputy Secretary, PMO, Mangesh Ghildiyal; geologist Varun Adhikari; and engineering expert Armando Capellan were part of the team at the site.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with officials at his residence in Dehradun for an update on the crisis. He expressed the hope that the state-of-the-art machines manufactured in the country and abroad would be successful in rescuing the labourers.
“Under the guidance of the PMO, the state government is busy making all efforts to evacuate labourers trapped inside the tunnel. We hope we will soon succeed in the mission,” he said. “The government stands with the families of workers who are trapped. Their safe and timely evacuation is our priority.”