New Delhi: The rescue mission to avoid wasting 41 males trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand has hit a roadblock. The machine that was purported to drill via the mountain has failed. Worldwide tunneling professional Arnold Dix, who’s overseeing the rescue mission, has vowed to carry the employees residence by Christmas. “The drilling, augering has stopped. It’s an excessive amount of for the auger (machine), it isn’t going to do something extra,” stated micro tunneling professional Arnold Dix on Uttarkashi tunnel rescue. He added that the rescue workforce is exploring different choices, however they’re additionally aware of the security of the boys and the rescuers.
“We’re a number of choices, however with every possibility we’re contemplating how will we guarantee that 41 males come residence secure and we don’t harm anybody. The mountain has once more resisted the auger, so we’re rethinking our strategy,” he stated. Regardless of the challenges, Dix expressed his confidence that the 41 males might be freed by Christmas. “I’m assured that the 41 males are coming residence by Christmas,” he stated.
The destiny of 41 labourers trapped contained in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand for the previous 13 days hangs within the steadiness because the rescue operation faces a number of challenges. The machine that was purported to bore via the particles and create a passage for the employees has encountered a metallic impediment, forcing the rescuers to cease drilling on Friday evening. That is the most recent setback within the multi-agency effort that started on November 12 when a landslide induced part of the under-construction tunnel on the Char Dham path to collapse.
The rescuers had managed to push a 46.8-metre-long metal pipe into the drilled gap, out of the estimated 60-metre-long blocked stretch. That they had additionally inserted a six-inch-wide tube to provide meals, medicines and different necessities to the employees, who’re in a two-kilometre-long part of the tunnel. The tube additionally enabled the employees to speak with their family members and the rescue workforce, and to ship pictures of their situation via an endoscopic digicam.
Nonetheless, with the drilling machine failing to make additional progress, the rescuers are contemplating different choices similar to manually drilling the remaining 10 to 12 metres or making a vertical escape passage from the highest of the tunnel.
An official stated that handbook drilling is a slower course of, whereas vertical drilling is a extra sophisticated and exact one. An enormous drilling machine was moved to the hill above the tunnel on Saturday morning, the place two spots with the bottom elevation have been recognized by consultants for vertical drilling. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has already constructed a 1.5-km entry highway to the highest of the tunnel for this objective.
The repeated delays and difficulties have made the family members of the trapped staff anxious and impatient. “For the final two days we’re being assured by officers that they (trapped staff) are being evacuated quickly however one thing or the opposite occurs and the method will get delayed,” stated Devender Kisku from Banka in Bihar, whose brother Virender Kisku is among the many trapped staff.