Uttarakhand Silkyara tunnel rescue: Might take 48-72 hours if all goes well, says NDMA 

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday said no further progress in drilling through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttrakhand has been made since Thursday but assured that the drilling by auger machine will start soon.

Rescuers racing to evacuate 41 construction workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for nearly two weeks are hoping to resume drilling today after a mechanical problem a day earlier forced them to halt, officials said.

The drilling process was stopped on Thursday because of obstructions, but the repair work is being done to restart the process, using an auger machine, shortly.” By any means”, the trapped workers will be rescued as all resources are being used, said NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain while briefing media on rescue operations. He said that it is difficult to display the timeline but if all goes well it might take 48-72 hours.

Authorities have been supplying the trapped workers with hot meals made of rice and lentils through a 6-inch (15-centimetre) pipe, after days in which they survived on dry food sent through a narrower pipe. Oxygen is being supplied through a separate pipe.

There has been no progress in the movement of pipe through debris in the tunnel since Thursday, and about 15 metres of drilling is still left to reach the stranded workers, he added.

Giving details of the operations, he said that provided there are no obstacles, the auger machine should be able to drill about 4-5 metres in an hour. Hasnain also advised the media not to speculate on the timeline for the completion of the rescue operations as it creates a wrong perception.”It is a difficult and challenging operation,” he added.

The NDMA member also said all the workers are safe, and their relatives, Union Minister VK Singh and Uttrakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami have spoken to them.

The workers have been trapped since Nov. 12, when a landslide in mountainous Uttarakhand state caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel they were building to collapse about 200 meters (650 feet) from the entrance.

Drilling through the rubble to prepare an escape route for the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel was set to resume on Friday morning, a day after another snag hit the rescue efforts.

Officials earlier released a video after a camera was pushed through the pipe showing the workers in their construction hats moving around the blocked tunnel while communicating with rescuers on walkie-talkies.

Most of the trapped workers are migrant labourers from across the country. Many of their families have travelled to the accident site, where they have camped out for days to get updates on the rescue and in hopes of seeing their relatives soon.

Haridwar Sharma’s brother, Sushil, is among those trapped.

“We are all waiting here, hoping they come out. It is not in our hands … the administration is at it, the machinery is there. With God’s blessing, we are hopeful,” he said.

Large numbers of pilgrims and tourists visit Uttarakhand’s many Hindu temples, with the number increasing over the years due to the continued construction of buildings and roadways.

The tunnel being built by the workers is part of the Chardham all-weather road which will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites. While a flagship project of the federal government, some experts say it will exacerbate the fragile environment in the upper Himalayas where several towns are built atop landslide debris.

With inputs from agencies.