Uttarakhand rescue operation hours away from success

UTTARKASHI: The mission to rescue 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand is treading to success amidst a lot of technical hurdles. The 60m deep residual rock and soil that got deposited inside the tunnel could be cleared if the drilling gets past 10m more.

Meanwhile, the auger drilling machine hit an iron layer last night and damaged the blade causing minor disruption. If the fault can be fixed, all the workers can be brought out by early Thursday morning. It has been eleven days since the workers were trapped.

The workers were provided food using bottles for the first time in 10 days on Tuesday. Clothes and other essentials were also delivered through the pipe. As the drilling reached its final stage, disaster management experts reached the tunnel and started preparations. It will be these workers who will wriggle through the pipe wearing oxygen masks to reach the other end to bring back the stranded workers.

Medical aid will be provided to workers immediately after rescue. For this, a 41-bed hospital has been set up at Chinyalisaur Community Health Center in Uttarkashi district. The rescue mission was put on hold on Friday after the drilling machine stopped working after suffering a hit. the mission was earlier announced to end on Wednesday but unfortunately, the blades in the Auger machine got damaged delaying the rescue.

The auger machine had completed drilling a total of 50 meters by Wednesday evening.