Uttarakhand: Trapped workers to be rescued by wide pipes inserted through rubble

Racing against time, rescuers on Tuesday (November 14) started inserting wide steel pipes through the rubble of a collapsed under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand to bring out the 40 workers trapped for two days.

The rescuers pushed 900-mm diameter sections of mild steel pipes one after the other into the rubble using drilling equipment to create an escape passage for the workers, officials said. The authorities said the labourers are safe and being given oxygen, water, food packets and medicines through tubes.

A team of 160 rescuers from various agencies have been working since Sunday to reach the trapped workers.

A part of the tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway caved in on Sunday morning following a landslide. The 30-metre collapsed section is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side, the state emergency operation centre said in Dehradun.

The son of Gabbar Singh Negi, one of the trapped labourers, spoke to his father briefly on Tuesday. "He said they were safe. He asked us not to worry,” Akash Singh Negi told PTI.

Rescue by Wednesday?

A priest is performing a prayer for the early and safe evacuation of the stranded workers.

Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha said the authorities are confident of rescuing the labourers by Tuesday night or Wednesday. The officials said mild steel pipes and the auger machine arrived at the accident spot early on Tuesday.

A platform is being prepared for the auger drilling machine, the officials said, adding that the pipes have a diameter of 900 mm. Five engineers from the irrigation department is overseeing the insertion process of the pipes through the rubble.

The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corp Ltd (NHIDCL) is engaged in building the tunnel.

Uttarkashi's Chief Medical Officer RCS Panwar said a six-bed temporary hospital has been set up near the tunnel and 10 ambulances with medical teams are ready to give medical care to the workers after their evacuation.

Fifteen of the workers are from Jharkhand, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five from Orissa, four from Bihar, three from West Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam and one is from Himachal Pradesh.

Reasons for the cave-in

Meanwhile, experts headed by the director of the Uttarakhand Landslide Minimisation and Management Centre are examining the affected part of the tunnel and the hill to ascertain the reasons behind the cave-in, an official statement said.

The team includes scientists and officials from the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, the Geological Survey of India, the Central Building Research Institute, IIT-Roorkee and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

Environmental experts have stepped in to warn that incidents like this would continue to happen if ecological concerns were not addressed.

Ravi Chopra, who resigned last year as the chairman of a Supreme Court-appointed high-powered committee on the Char Dham all-weather road project, said it was necessary to first address ecological concerns for development in the Himalayas.

"Sustainable development demands approaches that are both geologically and ecologically sound. Unless this balance is achieved, such horrific incidents will continue to happen," Chopra told PTI.

(With agency inputs)