Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Inside the Silkyara-Barkot under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, forty construction workers have been stuck for six days. The tunnel is located 260 meters underground.
This Friday marks the sixth day of increased rescue efforts to free the forty construction workers who are stuck 260 meters inside the Silkyara-Barkot under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. A portion of the tunnel collapsed on Sunday morning as a result of a landslide that occurred at 5:30 am, trapping the workers. – Uttarkashi tunnel collapse
This is what we currently know:
- There is hope that 40 workers who are trapped inside the tunnel will be rescued after a heavy-duty, cutting-edge performance auger drilling machine, transported from New Delhi on an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J aircraft, was installed on Thursday. Reports state that as of Friday morning, officials had bored through 21 meters of the collapsed tunnel’s debris.
- With the aid of a massive drill machine, the workers must drill up to 60 meters to insert pipes with diameters of 800 mm and 900 mm one after the other, until an escape route is made available for the trapped workers. Interestingly, the area where the debris is concentrated starts 270 meters from the tunnel’s mouth on the Silkyara side.
- According to officials, the stranded laborers are safe and receiving oxygen, medications, food, and water through pipes. To maintain their morale, they are also kept in constant communication, according to district magistrate Abhishek Ruhela of Uttarkashi.
- Ten ambulances with doctors stationed outside the tunnel to provide emergency medical care to the trapped workers during their evacuation, in addition to a makeshift six-bed medical facility.
- After being rescued, the workers would require both physical and mental rehabilitation, according to medical advice.
- On Thursday, Harbhajan Singh, a former cricket player who is now a politician, urged Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, to personally assist with the rescue efforts. “For more than 100 hours, 40 workers have been inside the #Uttarakhand tunnel. For their protection and rescue, I pray. Their families are concerned at a time when the nation is celebrating the World Cup and festivals. All available resources must be mobilized for the rescue effort. To allow the workers to be reunited with their families, I humbly ask the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Shri @pushkardhami Ji, for his intervention. Let’s put a smile back on their faces,” he posted on X, the platform that was formerly known as Twitter.
Ratnavali