Rescuers just five metres away from trapped workers; nation awaits good news from Silkyara

UTTARKASHI: As the rescue operations enter the 17th day in the Silkyara tunnel, the work of manual drilling is underway to bring out the trapped workers. A recent report has claimed that the rescuers are just five metres away from the trapped tunnel workers.

Micro tunnelling expert Chris Cooper on Tuesday morning said that 3 metres of manual drilling has been done so far and about 50 metres of drilling work has been completed in total. As per official sources, about 57 metres of drilling work from the mouth of the tunnel, is to be done in total to lay a pipe inside the tunnel to reach the trapped workers.

Speaking on the ongoing drilling work, Chris Cooper said, "It went very well last night. We have crossed 50 metres. It's now about 5-6 metres to go. We didn't have any obstacles last night. It is looking very positive."

Earlier the rescuers had completed about 47 metres of drilling work using the auger machine to lay the pipe.

The drilling work was put on hold as the auger machine got stuck in the debris, which was later cut and removed using a plasma cutter.

Rat-hole miners are carrying out the manual drilling work which has been going on since Monday night.

Meanwhile, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) Managing Director Mahmood Ahmad on Monday said that the vertical drilling of 36 meters has been completed which was done from atop the hill.

The workers got trapped in the tunnel on November 12. 15 persons from Jharkhand, 8 persons from Uttar Pradesh, 5 persons each from Bihar and Odisha, three persons from Bengal, two persons each from Uttarakhand and Assam and one person from Himachal Pradesh are trapped in the tunnel.