A Magna Rod cutter machine has been deployed to speed up the rescue operation of 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi since November 12, an ONGC official said. The development comes after a plasma cutter machine flown from Hyderabad to cut the auger machine that got stuck in the debris of the Silkyara tunnel, officials said.
They said that the machine was brought from Andhra Pradesh’s Rajahmundry Airport to Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun at 2 am on Saturday night by a charter flight of a private company. The rescue team engaged in the rescue operation is mobilising all types of machines to deal with any situation near the Silkyara Tunnel, they said.
The plasma cutter machine was brought to the Silkyara tunnel early in the morning. The process of removing the auger machine was underway even before the new machine arrived at the site. National Disaster Management Authority Member, Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain (retired) on Saturday said that there has been no movement in the last 24 hours in the drilling work to rescue the 41 workers trapped in the Uttarkashi tunnel for 13 days.
The NDMA member said that a portion of the American-Auger machine was broken, blocking the potential escape route. “The current update is that (in) the last 24 hours, there hasn’t been any movement within this bore tunnel that was being made for the rescue. Because…the Auger machine itself has had a bit of an accident. A portion of it (has actually) broken, and that broken portion has to be pulled out (of the escape pipe),” Hasnain told ANI.
Meanwhile, a protection umbrella is being laid inside the Silkyara tunnel, where 41 workers have been trapped for two weeks, to put up protection for the rescue team, official sources said. After a portion of the tunnel caved in on November 12, the debris falling in the 60-metre stretch on the Silkyara side of the tunnel trapped 41 labourers inside the under-construction structure.
