Rescuers in India tunnel collapse work on alternative plan on 7th day
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Rescue workers continue to operate at the site of a collapsed under-construction tunnel, on the Brahmakhal Yamunotri National Highway in Uttarkashi, India, on Nov 17.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
SILKYARA, India – Rescuers trying to reach workers trapped for nearly a week in a collapsed highway tunnel
The disaster management office revised the number of people trapped since Nov 12 morning in the tunnel in Uttarakhand state to 41 from 40. All are safe, the authorities have said.
The trapped workers have light and receive oxygen, food, water and medicines via a pipe, and can communicate via radios.
The new plan involves drilling vertically from the top of the mountain under which 41 workers were trapped while working on a highway tunnel, said Mr DP Baloni, divisional forest officer for Uttarkashi, in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India.
The rescue team has been drilling horizontally through the debris of the collapsed tunnel to reach the trapped workers.
The auger machine drilling through the debris broke on Nov 17.
A new machine flown in from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has reached the site, Mr Anshu Malik Halko, director at state-run National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC) told Reuters on Nov 18.
The new plan is to simultaneously drill from the side and above, said Mr Bhaskar Khulbe, officer on special duty for the tunnel project.
A geological survey was conducted by a team of experts that has helped identify four points on the mountain through which vertical drilling is possible, he said.
Drilling remains suspended for now and it will take another four or five days “to get the good news”, he told reporters.
The authorities have not said what caused the 4.5km tunnel to cave in, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
Of the 50 to 60 workers on the overnight shift at the time of the collapse, those near the exit got out of the tunnel, which is on a national highway that is part of the Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage route.
Work was suspended on Nov 17 after a “large-scale cracking sound” was heard as rescue workers sought to restart the drilling machine, according to a report from the state-run NHIDC.
“Our plan is to drill a 90-metre escape tunnel of 1.2m diameter,” said Mr Jasvant Kapoor, a general manager at SJVN, a government owned company involved in the rescue efforts.
Close to 100 tunnel workers gathered at the site on Nov 18, demanding faster progress in reaching and freeing those trapped.
Mr Vishnu Sahu, a labourer who was leading the protest, said the rescue team is keeping workers in the dark about the pace of progress of the rescue.
“We want the top people of the company to come here,” he said. REUTERS
