Uttarkashi tunnel collapse | Manual drilling at Silkyara tunnel on, rescuers cross 50-metre mark

Rescuers at Silkyara tunnel have crossed the 50-metre mark and they need to dig through around 10 metres of rubble using rat-hole mining technique to bring out the 41 workers trapped there

Rescuers at Silkyara tunnel have crossed the 50-metre mark and they need to dig through around 10 metres of rubble using rat-hole mining technique to bring out the 41 workers trapped there for the last 16 days.

Twelve rat-hole mining experts are involved in the horizontal excavation through the last 10 or 12-metre stretch of debris of the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route.

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This drilling was earlier carried out by a huge auger machine that got stuck in the rubble on Friday at around 47 metres.

"We have just crossed 50 metres," L&T team leader Chris Cooper told PTI on Tuesday. It raises hopes of an early evacuation as rescuers have to go only up to 10 metres to make a breakthrough.

However, the speed of the operation depends on whether or not the rescuers encounter any hurdle in the course of excavation which has often been hampered by something or the other.

A skilled team of workers is doing muck removal by hand using the rat hole mining technique while the 800-mm diameter pipe is being inserted by the auger machine through the rubble.