Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: Workers' kin run out of patience on day 6 of ordeal

Anxious families waiting outside for a week are losing patience and getting desperate as all attempts to drill a pipe into a collapsed tunnel to free 41 trapped workers in Uttarakhand have failed so far.

Relatives of two of the workers inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi region vented their ire against the government and the company that was building the tunnel on the Char Dham route. They said the voices of the labourers inside were getting weaker, their strength seemingly dimming and they were also not getting enough food.

The under-construction tunnel collapsed on November 12 morning with the labourers drawn from several states inside it. Rescue operations were suspended on Friday after a US-made auger machine deployed to drill and push in pipes through the rubble to prepare an escape passage developed a snag.

Officials now say a high-performance drilling machine airlifted from Indore was on the way to Silkyara to resume the drilling operation. But the relatives of the workers are not happy.

Deteriorating health

The health condition of the men inside the dark tunnel is worsening, said Haridwar Sharma, whose younger brother Sushil is among those trapped.

“All we are getting are assurances from authorities that the labourers will be rescued. It has been nearly a week,” Sharma, from Bihar's Rohtas district, told PTI. “There is no work going on inside the tunnel. Neither the company nor the government is doing anything,” he added.

The family of Gabbar Singh Negi, who is from Uttarakhand, is also camping outside the tunnel for news about him. His brother Maharaj Singh said he spoke to Gabbar through a pipe used for supplying oxygen and his voice sounded very feeble. “I could not talk to my brother. His voice sounded very weak. He was hardly audible… Those trapped are also short of food and water. We are running out of patience now,” Maharaj told PTI.

Anxious families

Their brother Prem said the trapped workers were beginning to lose hope. “Gabbar said he is alright but his voice is feebler now. They are getting light edibles like chana, kheer and badam. How long can they sustain on this?” Prem said.

Gabbar’s son Akash Singh added: “They talk about the success of Chandrayan mission but they cannot evacuate our people trapped for around a week.”

By the time the operation was halted on Friday, the heavy-duty auger machine had drilled up to 24 metres through the rubble spread over around a 60-metre area inside the tunnel.

Around 2.45 pm on Friday, a big cracking sound was heard in the tunnel upon which rescue operation was suspended immediately, the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corp (NHIDCL) said. An expert involved with the project warned about the possibility of further collapse in the vicinity.

PMO Deputy Secretary Mangesh Ghildiyal is meanwhile reaching Silkyara for an on-the-spot review of the rescue operations, officials said.

On-the-spot review

Meanwhile, the number of workers who have been trapped inside the tunnel since Sunday has been revised to 41. The NHIDCL, which is constructing the tunnel through Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd, came to know about this discrepancy on Friday.

According to an earlier list issued by the NHIDCL, 40 workers were trapped inside the tunnel after a part of it collapsed at around 5.30 am on Sunday. Deepak Kumar from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar was identified as the 41st person to be stuck in the tunnel.

A team of officials from the Centre including Additional Secretary, MoRTH Mahmood Ahmed, Deputy Secretary, PMO, Mangesh Ghildiyal, Varun Adhikari, Geologist Engg, and engineering expert Armando Capellan have arrived in Silkyara to do an on-the-spot review of the rescue operations.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with officials at his official residence in Dehradun to take an update on the rescue operations at the tunnel in Silkyara. Dhami said he hopes the state-of-the-art machines manufactured in the country and abroad will be successful in rescuing the labourers.

(With agency inputs)