On November 16, an IAF-supplied heavy-duty drilling equipment arrived in Delhi and started breaking through the debris of a collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route in Uttarakhand. This an attempt to find a new escape route for the forty workers who had stuck there for four days.
Before the US-made auger machine started up, workers outside the Silkyara tunnel conducted a puja. When the new equipment started drilling, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V.K. Singh had already come to assess the state of the rescue effort.
On November 15, three IAF transport aircraft airlifted pieces of the “American auger” machine to replace the earlier “failed” equipment used to clear the channel. Then, these transported to the location and assembled at the Chinyalisaur airfield in Uttarakhand, which is located more than 30 kilometers from the Silkyara tunnel on the Char Dham path. According to the officials, the heavy equipment installation almost finished, and drilling will shortly start again. On November 15, at 11 p.m., the new machine’s installation got underway.
“Our first goal is to release the workers as quickly as possible. To this aim, every effort made. Everyone is supporting this endeavor, from the Prime Minister to other agencies, according to Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Gen. V.K. Singh (retd.). According to what I’ve informed, the new drilling equipment has already broken through the rubble and is around 5-7 meters deep. As it drills at a rate of five to ten meters per hour, we expect it will soon reach the trapped workers,” Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami said to media in Devhradun.
“Necessities being provided to workers”
According to G.L. Nath, public relations officer at Navayuga Engineering Company, “95% of installation work is complete.” For the benefit of the NHIDCL, the business is constructing the tunnel. According to Mr. Nath, the workers are in good health and receive the essential supplies every 30 minutes.
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