Uttarkashi tunnel collapse | Drilling snags hold up rescue operation in Silkyara tunnel
The HinduRescue teams were not able to move even an inch closer to the 41 workers trapped in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel by November 24 evening, as the entire day was taken up in fixing snags in the drilling machine and using radar to scan the debris ahead for any further obstacles. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the tunnel site on November 24 afternoon and also briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the rescue operation, which is now in its 13th day. A senior official involved in the Silkyara-end operation recapped the progress so far: the auger drilling machine started work in the early hours of November 22 but had to stop that evening as it struck an iron lattice girder, one of the structural elements of the tunnel. Radar shows no obstacles The rescue teams also used ground penetration radar to scan for any further obstacles lying ahead, said senior Uttarakhand government official Bhasker Khulbe, a former advisor to the PM, adding that the scan showed that there are no major hurdles like rocks or iron objects in the next five metres of debris.