A new auger machine was delivered to rescuers in Uttarakhand at the location early on Saturday morning, but it was not used because of concerns about additional damage to the lair.
The workers’ fate, trapped in an under-construction lair in Uttarkashi, hung in the balance on Saturday as rescuers attempting to reach them started working on a vital plan on the seventh day of the operation—having abandoned the first two—while also looking into ways to ensure that the 41 people don’t run out of food and medicine.
According to police, the new strategy entails building a vital passage at the summit of the mountain to allow drilling vertically from a pre-selected location on the lair to a depth of roughly 103 meters, where the workers are stuck.
Rescuers in Uttarakhand will drill from the top of their lair:
A new auger machine was delivered to the location early on Saturday morning, but it was not used because there were concerns about additional damage to the lair after a loud crack was heard the day before while drilling a hole through the 65–70 meter wall of rubble.
Bhaskar Khulbe, a former lawyer to the Prime Minister’s Office, stated that every possibility to deliver the workers is being considered.
“We are exploring every option for obtaining workers. Our priority is to assist individuals who have been stuck for several days. Arriving on the scene on Saturday, Khulbe tried to reassure the villagers, saying, “We don’t warrant any coffers, options, and ideas, we just need some coordinated action and we’re trying to make brigades and reach there ever.”
A section of the 4.5-kilometer lair that the construction workers were building collapsed on Sunday, trapping them 200 meters from the Silkyara entrance in the Uttarakhand quarter. The lair is a part of the bustling Chardham Every Rainfall Road, a signature design that links vibrant passageways.
The Indian Army’s Engineering Corps, the public highways and structure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), which is in charge of the deliverance job, also requested support from the individuals behind the construction of the Atal Lair in Himachal Pradesh, ONGC, and the Indian Army’s Engineering Corps.
On top of the lair, four potential drilling start locations have been connected. Additionally, we have begun constructing the machine’s approach road on the hilltop, according to a Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) employee involved in the operation’s planning.
Officers offered a stopgap that the deliverance charge, which had been delayed since Friday, would soon renew and that a Border Roads Organizations (BRO) road that would create an essential route to the lair would be finished by Sunday autumn.
The length of this track is roughly 1,000–1,100 meters. At the same time, we’re checking to see how much time it will require. According to our calculations, the track should be completed by this autumn, BRO’s Major Naman Narula was reported by news agency PTI as saying.
Still, there are certain drawbacks to the new approach.
“If everything goes smoothly and safely, this will take at least five more days to a week,” stated the RVNL employee mentioned in the initial case.
“Since the terrain is unstable, rescuers in Uttarakhand using traditional drilling techniques under overburden soil conditions is difficult. This is where the Odex (Overburden Drilling Excentric) technology comes in and loose conformations,” the functionary stated.
Officers & rescuers in Uttarakhand also perspire, and any damage to the lair during drilling may hinder perspiration and cause more debris to fall on the personnel who are confined.
NHIDCL director Anshu Manish Khalkho expressed these endeavors on Friday, saying, “At first, we didn’t conduct this check as we believed we could navigate through the 60 meters of debris.” Nevertheless, we concluded that a minimum drill depth of 103 meters will be required for this plan C based on a previous check. There are risks when using a 103-meter perpendicular drill because new debris could fall.
Concerns about the 41 individuals’ health—the number of stranded workers was changed late on Friday night, fueling concerns about the construction company’s negligence—kept growing in the meantime.
According to reports as of Saturday, October, the laborers were safe and receiving food items such as glucose, puffed rice, dry fruits, roasted chickpeas, and multivitamins.
The goal of the authorities was to install a 100-meter long pipe, about five stories high on the periphery, so that food, water, and medications could be dropped in case the current vertical pipes were damaged by a landslide or deeper delve-heft.
After a meeting with officials from the PMO, state government, and experts in the morning, the functionary stated, “It has been decided to make an indispensable food force pipe for extremities. Experts feel that vertically fitting a pipe measuring not further than 4- elevation from the ceiling of the lair in the mountainside won’t lead to a landslide. It’ll be a thin pipe, fitted for exigency, just to shoot food and water until they can be brought out.” Senior officers of various agencies, including NHIDC, NDRF, NDMA, ONGC, Army Engineering Corps, and Uttarakhand state government, have joined a WhatsApp group.
The top officials of all these agencies would ensure that any material is made available internationally with the assistance of the Indian Air Force (IAF) as the NHIDC works to build the passage, the official continued.
The operation is being overseen by Colonel Deepak Patil, with whom the common agencies will coordinate. The highest positions in the government will guarantee that assistance requested at the point is provided, the official stated.
Separately, the officers have chosen to extend the vertical pipes, which have their mouth inside the lair and the other end with the trapped workers, to a point outside the lair. This way, in the event of a delve-heft, if the saviors are unable to temporarily enter the lair, they will be able to take vital inventory of the workers.
At the scene of the accident, the unrest intensified. Coworkers of those who were trapped staged a protest, accusing the authorities of being careless and detaining people throughout the operation.
“They have been trying our patience, the rescue teams. Mrityunjay Kumar, a Bihar-based construction worker, stated, “They have been just experimenting…by bringing new machines, one after another.”
“Rescuers in Uttarakhand is not being done the work within the tunnel. “It seems that neither the government nor the company are taking any action,” sobbed Haridwar Sharma, whose younger brother Sushil is among those within the tunnel.
All the government can guarantee us is that the captured laborers will be freed. Sharma resides in Rohtas, in the Bihar district. “Almost a week has passed,” he remarked.
Rescuers in Uttarakhand efforts came to a standstill on Friday about 2:45 p.m. A large cracking sound was heard in the tunnel during the installation of a fifth pipe, and rescuers in Uttarakhand rescue efforts were immediately halted, according to a statement released on Friday night by the NHIDCL, the organization in charge of tunnel construction.
Rescuers in Uttarakhand were temporarily stopped drilling on Friday morning as well, when the augur machine that was brought in from Delhi suffered damage after drilling through about 24 meters. According to this proposal, 800mm and 900mm diameter pipes would be pushed through the wreckage one after the other to create a passageway via which the trapped workers might escape.
Prior to that, rescuers in Uttarakhand attempted to use large excavators to dig through the debris as part of Plan A, but their efforts were hampered by loose rock and sand collapsing from the tunnel’s top.
Authorities have now chosen to work on five plans concurrently due to the operation’s sensitivity and delays.
At a press conference in Silkyara, Khulbe, who is currently OSD for the Uttarakhand government, stated, “The experts were one in their view that rather than working on just one Five plans should be worked on concurrently in order to get to the stranded workers as soon as possible.”
According to him, the five designs include perpendicular drilling, vertical drilling from the top of the tunnel, and rescuers in Uttarakhand drilling from one end to the other on the Silkyara and Barkot sides.
In the interim, the authorities have also chosen to build an escape path for the workers at the site and to weld the huge diameter pipes. The pipe will be laid from the tunnel’s mouth to the location where the rescuers in Uttarakhand are laboring to construct the escape passage because they are afraid that if there is another cave-in, they would become trapped as well.
