Pipe insertion into tunnel rubble on, new drill machine raises hopes

A heavy-duty drilling machine flown in by the IAF is functioning well at the cave in site of an under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi where 40 labourers have stranded on the other side of the rubble since Sunday.

- NARENDRA SETHI 

Uttarkashi Superintendent of Police Arpan Yaduvanshi told this newspaper, two steel pipes each 6 metres longhave been inserted into the debris to rescue the labourers. That insertion took seven hours.

A third pipe has been now been welded to the second one is being and pushed in through the US-made jack and push earth auger machine. So, more than 12 metres of the pipe has been inserted so far. "Drilling is going on continuously," he said.