Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Using ropes to draw them out of the horizontal chute, the 41 workers would lie on low, wheeled stretchers.
A day after another setback derailed the rescue efforts, work on excavating an escape path for the forty-one workmen stranded inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, began anew on Friday morning. One by one, the employees will be dragged out through a large conduit on wheeled stretchers.
Former PM Office advisor Bhaskar Khulbe stated earlier on Friday morning that auger boring through the debris would resume by 11.30 am, and if everything goes well, the operation would be successfully finished by the evening.
He said there is no metallic barrier up to five meters past the 46-meter mark through the rubble, citing data scanned by a ground penetrating radar.
The Uttarkashi tunnel rescue workers would be dragged out of the horizontal chute by ropes while lying on low, wheeled stretchers.
Earlier on Friday, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) gave a demonstration of how the trapped workers will be freed using stretchers.
In order to provide workers with an emergency safe route for auger-operated pipe pushing operations, work has been done on creating an escape route by installing steel, concrete, and culvert blocks along with concrete and hume pipes for a total length of 67 meters (187 to 120 meters).
An accelerating compound for quickening the setting of concrete has been used to reinforce a 25-tonne platform that holds the Heavy American Auger machine that is being used to dig through the rubble.
Horizontal drilling into the wreckage had to be stopped since the platform, upon which the equipment was installed, had some cracks when the rescue operation started on Thursday.
According to the official statement, the 9th pipe was pushed starting at 1:10 am on Friday and had advanced 1.8 meters when an abrupt little tremor was detected.
After that, the rescue team noticed the blockages and pushed the auger back slightly to reevaluate the force that needed to be used.
On November 12, a section of the uttarkashi tunnel that was being built from Silkyara to Barkot collapsed, trapping 41 laborers within the 60-meter section on the Silkyara side of the tunnel due to falling debris.
The 2 km of constructed area where the workers are confined includes finished concrete construction that ensures their safety.