Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Protests break out as falling debris hinders rescue of workers, bigger machine flown in

Indian officials have contacted the Thai company which rescued the children trapped in the Tham Luang cave complex in 2018

Livemint
Published15 Nov 2023, 08:26 PM IST
Police officers stand at the entrance of a tunnel where 40 road workers are trapped after a portion of the tunnel collapsed in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand,  November 15.
Police officers stand at the entrance of a tunnel where 40 road workers are trapped after a portion of the tunnel collapsed in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand, November 15.(REUTERS)

India has contacted a Thai company for the rescue of 40 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in Uttarkashi.

Since Sunday morning, the debris is being removed from the site to create an escape tunnel for the workers.

Officials have “contacted the Thai company which rescued the children trapped in the cave,” the Uttarakhand government's department of public relations said in a statement.

In 2018, the Thai company rescued 12 boys from a junior football team and their coach who were trapped for more than two weeks in the Tham Luang cave complex.

Officials said the labourers were safe, and oxygen, electricity, medicines, food items and water were being supplied to them through pipes.

On Wednesday, a heavy drilling machine was airlifted from Delhi to replace the "failed" equipment which was being used earlier to create a passage for 40 workers.

The new machine, that landed at Chinyalisaur, over 30 kilometres from the tunnel on the Chardham route, is being put into service, amid apprehension by workers at the site on the progress of the multi-agency rescue operations.

 

Abhishek Rohilla, district magistrate of Uttarkashi, said: “The machine has come through special aircraft of the Indian Air Force... Soon, the third aircraft will also arrive. Once all the parts of the machine are here, they will be assembled… We have transported this machine here to make the rescue process easier...”

 

“...Continuous monitoring is being done by Central and state government... There was a need for a high-capacity drilling machine...It is being sent by the planes of Air Force andarrangement of Green corridor has been done so that they reach here sooner...,” said Rohilla.

Some workers chanted slogans at the mouth of the tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway, protesting over the "slow" pace of the operation to rescue their colleagues trapped inside for over 72 hours now.

The plan was to to drill through the rubble of the tunnel's collapsed portion and insert 800-mm and 900-mm diameter sections of mild steel pipes -- one after the other. But the first drilling machine turned out to be too slow and technical issues also developed.

Also, falling debris inside the tunnel damaged the equipment and injured two rescue workers on Tuesday.

 

"We will start installing it (the new machine) as soon as it arrives and in four-hours hours it will begin the drilling operation. With a capacity to penetrate 4-5 metres of rubble per hour, we can expect it to penetrate 50 metres through the rubble in 10 hours," NHIDCL Director Anshu Manish Khalkho said.

Tuesday's landslide and slow performance of the drilling machine deployed earlier hampered efforts to insert steel pipes through the tunnel's debris to create the passage, Khalkho added.

The 4.5-kilometre (2.7-mile) tunnel was being constructed between the towns of Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect Uttarkashi and Yamunotri.

The 30-metre collapsed section is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side.

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First Published:15 Nov 2023, 08:26 PM IST
Business NewsNewsIndiaUttarkashi tunnel collapse: Protests break out as falling debris hinders rescue of workers, bigger machine flown in

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