Drilling resumes at Silkyara tunnel to rescue 41 workers, PM Modi speaks to Dhami on rescue operations

Drilling operations with the American auger machine recommenced at the Silkyara tunnel to prepare an escape route for the 41 workers who have been trapped inside for over 10 days.

According to officials, 800 mm diameter steel pipes have been inserted up to 39 metres through the rubble, with another 14 metres to go before the rescuers reach the trapped labourers. Once the drilling is complete, the passage will be used to evacuate the labourers from the tunnel.

"We have pushed in the pipes up to 39 metres by now. Everything is fine. I have spoken to them (trapped workers). Their morale is high," former advisor to the PMO Bhaskar Khulbe told reporters in Silkyara.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami once again on Wednesday morning to take updates on the rescue operations underway at the tunnel and food and other essentials including medicines being supplied to the trapped workers through a new wider pipeline laid for the purpose.

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Major Naman Narula of BRO said that the road construction work on the hill from the upper part of the tunnel to the marked place on the tunnel where the drilling work will be done has been completed. "Around 1,200 metres of road has been constructed. Two drilling machine vehicles have also reached the tunnel site. We have constructed the track within 48 hours..." Major Narula said.

The labourers got trapped as portions of the Silkyara-Dandalgaon under-construction tunnel on the Brahmkhal-Yamunotri highway collapsed following a landslide at around 5.30 am on the day of Diwali.

Multiple agencies, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), project executing agency National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has joined the rescue efforts.

With inputs from agencies.