Repair Success: Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue Operation Ready for Resumption
Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue Operation: In a significant development, authorities announced on Friday morning that the 25-tonne platform supporting the auger machine, instrumental in the ongoing rescue operations at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, has been successfully repaired. The platform had incurred cracks during Thursday's rescue operation efforts, prompting a temporary halt in the horizontal drilling process aimed at reaching 41 trapped workers within the debris.
"The problem encountered in the platform on which the American auger machine was mounted has been fixed, and now the machine is running smoothly on the platform," stated a top official to ANI.
Despite the resolution, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is set to assess the situation before rescue operations resume. "Today, the DRDO team will first try to see the situation beyond 48 meters (where the pipeline has been laid) through scanning with special equipment which can probably be called a camera, before starting further drilling. The team will check whether there is no problem with drilling further" the official explained.
The DRDO team will utilize its scanning equipment to assess the conditions up to the next 20 meters, paving the way for the resumption of the drilling process. "The process of drilling will be started after the scanning report of DRDO," the official added.
Rescue teams had previously succeeded in drilling through approximately 46.8 meters of the roughly 55 meters of debris, with pipes inserted to facilitate the trapped workers' evacuation through escape passage pipes leading to the tunnel's mouth.
While officials cautioned against assuming specific timelines, if the rescue efforts progress without impediments, workers could potentially be liberated by Saturday afternoon. Today marks the 13th day since the initiation of the rescue operation.
On November 12, a segment of the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Barkot collapsed, trapping 41 laborers inside a 60-meter stretch on the Silkyara side. The trapped workers are confined to a 2 km-built portion, which is complete, including concrete work designed to ensure their safety.
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