Rescue operations at the Silkyara tunnel were delayed for hours on November 23 as the drilling machine ran into an iron lattice girder, a structural element of the tunnel which had been buried in the debris and had to be removed manually. The machine only managed to bore through two more metres of debris by 6 p.m. on November 23, frustrating efforts to reach the 41 workers trapped by the collapse of the tunnel since November 12.
By November 22 evening, when the obstacle was struck, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), which is building the tunnel, had drilled horizontally through about 45 metres of debris from the Silkyara end, completing about 70% of the distance to the workers, Uttarakhand Secretary Neeraj Khairwal said.
“The machine encountered a metallic object [a lattice girder rib] and hence, pushing of the pipe stopped. Rescue team members Pradeep Yadav and Balwinder crawled inside the pipe and cut off the pieces of metal stuck at the mouth of the pipe using gas cutters. This task was completed at 2 a.m. on Thursday (November 23),” he added.
