Tunnel Accident: 41 labourers in eight states battle for lives...
Tunnel Accident: 41 labourers in eight states battle for lives...
On Sunday, november 26, the ongoing rescue effort to free the 41 workmen who have been stuck in Uttarakhand's Silkyara Tunnel for the past 15 days was also suspended. Although it has been anticipated for the past three days that the rescue operation is nearing its conclusion and that the workers could be removed at any moment, the task of laying the final 10-meter pipe has grown challenging. This has caused a snag in the workforce evacuation process. The main cause of this is the American-made auger machine's malfunction, which prevented workers from being reached by drilling through the tunnel debris.
An 80 cm-diameter pipe has been installed 46.9 meters in length to reach the labourers. The auger machine's drilling blades were inserted inside it to drill; but, on friday night, the machine's blade became stuck because the steel mesh was in the way. For the purpose of cutting and removing these items, a plasma cutter machine has now been flown in from Hyderabad.
The army will carry out more manual drilling.
As to the news agency ANI report, the task of manual drilling in the rescue mission will now be performed by army men. The machine part must be extracted from the pipe entirely in order to continue with the rescue operation. Pipes will need to be laid by hand drilling through the wreckage to make a way for the workers to escape.