Army joins rescue op for vertical drilling at Uttarkashi tunnel

National Disaster Management Authority member Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) on Sunday said the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction tunnel are in good health condition and are getting their food and medicine. They are in constant touch with their relatives through the communication lines. The rescuers -- all agencies together -- are working to explore alternatives while vertical drilling made considerable progress on Sunday.
Meanwhile,the Indian Army has stepped in for the rescue operation at a collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi where 41 workers have been trapped for the past 15 days. They were moving their equipment to the tunnel site as work was on to remove the auger machine which was busted when it encountered a metal obstruction while drilling through the debris.Plasma cutters that arrived from Hyderabad were being used to manually dismantle the damaged blades of the American-made auger drilling machine.Authorities have also begun vertical drilling on the hilltop above the Silkyara tunnel to create an alternate route for the trapped men to be rescued.

Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) tunnel rescue | A plasma cutter and laser cutter were brought to Silkyara to cut the auger machine.

Late at night, the Dehradun, Tehri and Uttarkashi police administrations made a green corridor and sent the plasma cutter and laser cutter to the Silkyara… pic.twitter.com/A3ASxy3EzG

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2023

The NDMA member explained that plan A would be the best one which involves manual drilling after the broken parts of the auger machine are extracted. The machine got stuck and its blade came off. Indian Air Force and IndiGo chartered flight have ferried the instrument required to cut the blade.. The auger machine has already drilled 47 metre inside the tunnel. The manual digging will start after that and will be done for the rest 15 metre. 
The plan B of vertical drilling has already started and 15 metre out of the target of 86 metre has been completed. This is being done by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam. The third plan of the rescuers is to drill sideways but work on this has not started yet as the equipment required for it has not reached the site.While the vertical drilling that began on Sunday is on the Silkyara side of the tunnel, the rescuers have a plan to do the same on the other side of the tunnel, under plan 4.Under plan 6,The NDMA member explained that blasting on the Barkot side of the tunnel was done on Sunday morning and an area of 10-12 metre has been penetrated. Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) said the 6th plan involves drift technology in which the sides of the tunnel will be scrapped. Army engineers will be taking care of it.