Express News Service

DEHRADUN: With the horizontal drilling machine hitting yet another hurdle in the collapsed section of a tunnel in Uttarkashi on Friday, authorities sought to expedite the vertical drilling option to rescue 41 labourers stranded on the other side of the rubble since Diwali day.

The US auger machine that had to halt on Thursday after colliding with a metallic object, resumed drilling on Friday afternoon but stopped soon after, since a metal rod came in its way. The obstacles it is facing include iron nets, girders and iron rods. The machine and the pushed pipes got damaged while cutting through the iron mesh and other barriers.

Earlier in the day, Col Deepak Patil, in-charge of the rescue operations at Silkyara tunnel, told this newspaper: “With resumption of drilling by the auger machine, two more pipes will be welded and pushed in using the drill and push method. This work will take a maximum of six hours; so the rescue is expected to be completed by Saturday afternoon.” Welding of pipes were expected to take 1.5-2 hours. “At present, drilling has been done up to 47 metres; 10 metres more to be drilled,” he added.

But with the auger machine encountering too many hurdles, work on vertical drilling has been put on the fast track. According to official sources, a 1,150-metre access road to the vertical drilling spot has been completed by Border Roads Organisation. “The BRO has also towed the vertical drilling machine to the site platform. Identification of the drilling points over the tunnel has been finalised after discussions with Geological Survey of India, RVNL and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation,” they said.

Sources at Silkyara said: “A team of six tunneling-mining specialist engineers from Bengaluru-based Squadron Infra is at the site and studying it using artificial intelligence.” Additionally, Squadron Infra has sent two advanced drones along with drone pilots and geotechnical experts to assist the rescue efforts.

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