New drilling machine pressed into service as fears over health of 40 trapped workers rise

A new and more powerful drilling machine was finally pushed into service in the third attempt by rescue officials to create a passage large enough to evacuate 40 workers who have been trapped behind a 70-meter-thick wall of debris inside a 4.5km-long tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand for more than 100 hours as of late Thursday night.

- Amit Bathla

The new "state-of-the-art" auger machine was able to drill through nine metres in the first six hours of its operation, which started at 10.30am on Thursday morning, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) officials said.

At this pace, it will take at least another two days to reach the workers, they said at a time when concerns over the safety and health of the workers trapped with low oxygen and scant nourishment is mounting.

As of midnight on Thursday, the workers were trapped in the tunnel behind a cave-in for 114 hours, even as NHIDCL officials assured the families of those trapped that all were alive and were being provided supplies through a water pipe.

Meanwhile, the size of the debris has increased from 50-55m initially to 65-70m after repeated cave-ins, said a Railways official who is involved in the rescue operation and did not wish to be identified.

A portion of the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Dandalgaon on the Yamunotri National Highway (NH) collapsed at around 5.30am on Sunday, trapping 40 workers around 260m from the tunnel entrance at the Silkyara end.

After four days of wait, the families and other workers staged a protest outside the tunnel, alleging that the construction company Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL), and rescue teams were not working fast enough to rescue the trapped men.

The rescue operation is being managed by the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and Uttarakhand Disaster Management Authority, while the drilling is being done by NHIDCL.