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NEW DELHI: It would take anywhere between 16 and 50 hours for the breakthrough at Silkyara tunnel, the agencies involved in the rescue of 41 trapped workers informed top PMO officials on Monday who visited the site today. P K Mishra, principal secretary to PM and home secretary Ajay Bhalla visited the tunnel site and held a review meeting on the rescue operation.
Sources said the government agencies told the officials that the manual clearing of the caved in portion will take around 16 hours, if the miners and manual cutters face no obstacles, while vertical drilling, which is a “sure shot”, will take anywhere between 20 and 50 hours. “We are expecting the breakthrough by Wednesday or Thursday, at the most, going by the current progress. Manual cutting has started and if all goes well, this will be the fastest,” said an official who did not wish to be named.
Till late Monday evening, around 40 meters drilling had been completed out of the total 86 meters to put in the 1.2 meter dia pipe and without any problem.
The team led by the principal secretary to the PM spent around one-and-a-half hours at the site and Mishra also interacted with trapped workers through the communication line and assured them of their safe rescue. TOI has learnt that Mishra directed all the agencies to follow one line of communication for a fully coordinated effort for quick evacuation of the workers.
Even as officials said the vertical drilling is happening at a faster pace, there has to be precision while cutting the crust of the already constructed tunnel portion to evacuate the workers. Sources said the agencies have carefully finalised the portion of the crust that has to be cut for the vertical pipe to reach the tunnel. “Since there is enough space inside the tunnel, the trapped workers will be safe. Once the pipe is inserted and stabilised the workers will be pulled out one by one in buckets. Each evacuation may take 3-4 minutes,” said an official involved in the rescue operation.
Later in the day, Syed Ata Hasnain, member of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said work on manual cutting of the collapsed portion from Silkyara end was about to start by engineers from the Indian Army and rat-hole miners. Though the entire portion of the auger stuck in an already laid pipe was cut and taken out on Monday morning, the agencies took more time to cut and remove a portion of damaged pipe.
Vishal Chauhan, NHAI member and also heading the coordination at the centre, said there is a team of six members who are working in groups of three to cut the remaining horizontal portion of rubble manually and sensors have also been put to monitor movement inside the earth. The horizontal cutting of the rubble remains the best option for the agencies to rescue the workers as this is a “fail safe” method.
Hasnain said things are under control and food and medicine are being sent as per requirements. For manual drilling, a team of 11 has been flown in from Delhi and these include six specialists and five more in reserve.
Sources said the government agencies told the officials that the manual clearing of the caved in portion will take around 16 hours, if the miners and manual cutters face no obstacles, while vertical drilling, which is a “sure shot”, will take anywhere between 20 and 50 hours. “We are expecting the breakthrough by Wednesday or Thursday, at the most, going by the current progress. Manual cutting has started and if all goes well, this will be the fastest,” said an official who did not wish to be named.
Till late Monday evening, around 40 meters drilling had been completed out of the total 86 meters to put in the 1.2 meter dia pipe and without any problem.
The team led by the principal secretary to the PM spent around one-and-a-half hours at the site and Mishra also interacted with trapped workers through the communication line and assured them of their safe rescue. TOI has learnt that Mishra directed all the agencies to follow one line of communication for a fully coordinated effort for quick evacuation of the workers.
Even as officials said the vertical drilling is happening at a faster pace, there has to be precision while cutting the crust of the already constructed tunnel portion to evacuate the workers. Sources said the agencies have carefully finalised the portion of the crust that has to be cut for the vertical pipe to reach the tunnel. “Since there is enough space inside the tunnel, the trapped workers will be safe. Once the pipe is inserted and stabilised the workers will be pulled out one by one in buckets. Each evacuation may take 3-4 minutes,” said an official involved in the rescue operation.
Later in the day, Syed Ata Hasnain, member of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said work on manual cutting of the collapsed portion from Silkyara end was about to start by engineers from the Indian Army and rat-hole miners. Though the entire portion of the auger stuck in an already laid pipe was cut and taken out on Monday morning, the agencies took more time to cut and remove a portion of damaged pipe.
Vishal Chauhan, NHAI member and also heading the coordination at the centre, said there is a team of six members who are working in groups of three to cut the remaining horizontal portion of rubble manually and sensors have also been put to monitor movement inside the earth. The horizontal cutting of the rubble remains the best option for the agencies to rescue the workers as this is a “fail safe” method.
Hasnain said things are under control and food and medicine are being sent as per requirements. For manual drilling, a team of 11 has been flown in from Delhi and these include six specialists and five more in reserve.
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