“A plasma cutter from Hyderabad arrives to rescue 41 laborers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel.”
A plasma cutter was flown in from Hyderabad on Sunday to cut and remove parts of the auger machine stuck in the rubble inside the Silkyara tunnel where 41 laborers have been stranded for the last 14 days. A complete disengagement of the machine is necessary for the officials to resume the rescue work which involves manual pushing of pipes through rubble to prepare an escape passage. A part of a drill machine has also been sent atop the hill, above the tunnel, for a vertical drilling.
Assistance from the Indian Army and international tunnelling expert have also been enlisted for the rescue efforts. The Madras Sappers, an engineer group of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army, arrived at the site on Sunday to assist in the rescue operations. International tunnelling expert Arnold Dix commended the progress, stating that the plasma cutter has increased the speed of cutting parts of the auger stuck in the rubble.
As work continues to extract the auger from the passage, tests are being conducted to assess the consolidation and composition of the rocks in preparation for the start of vertical drilling from the top of the tunnel from the Silkyara side.
The rescue effort began on November 12 after a portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand’s Char Dham route collapsed following a landslide, cutting off the exit for the workers inside. The workers are located in a built-up two-kilometer stretch of the tunnel and are being provided with food, medicines, and essential supplies through a six-inch wide pipe.