Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday arrived at Silkyara tunnel where the operation to rescue 41 trapped workers is underway. A skilled team of workers began removing the muck by hand using the rat-hole mining technique on Monday while 800-mm diameter pipes were being pushed through the rubble by an auger machine.
1) Pipes have been inserted up to 52 meters through the rubble at Silkyara tunnel, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said Tuesday as efforts to rescue the 41 workers trapped there continued for the 17th day. He said The breakthrough point is 57 meters.
2) “All engineers, experts, and others are working with all their strength. As of now, the pipe has gone 52 metres in. With the manner in which the work is ongoing, we hope that there will be a breakthrough very soon. As soon as the pipe goes through, the process of bringing out them (workers) will begin. Everyone is fine…," said CM Dhami.
3) He said, “Almost 52 metres has been done (pipe inserted). It is expected that there will be a breakthrough around 57 metres. 1 metre of the piple was pushed in before me, if 2 metres more of it is pushed in it will be around 54 metres in. After that, one more pipe will be used in...Earlier steel girders were found (during drilling), this has reduced now. Right now, we are finding more of concrete, it is being cut with cutter.”
4) When asked whether there were hurdles on the way, he said steel and iron girders were not being encountered. "Stones are coming in the way but they are being broken using cutters," the chief minister said.
5) Rescuers need to dig through around 10 metres of rubble using rat-hole mining technique to bring out the workers. This drilling was earlier carried out by a huge auger machine that got stuck in the rubble on Friday at around 47 metres.
(With inputs from agencies)
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