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Heavy machinery works at the front of a road tunnel under a collapsed structure in India’s mountainous state of Uttarakhand on Saturday (November 18). Forty workers were trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India for a seventh day on Saturday. As rescuers waited for a new device to make its way through the rubble so they could slowly advance to their freedom.
LUCKNOW, India >> Forty-one employees remained trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India on Saturday for a seventh day as a new drilling device arrived to repair the one that was broken.
The nature of the hard rock formation in the area, coupled with debris removal, broke the original device and halted rescue efforts on Friday, officials said. This added a new challenge to long-term rescue efforts.
The number of stranded personnel was also revised from 40 to 41, said Anshu Manish, director of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, one of the agencies overseeing the rescue. He said the tunnel’s corporate structure, Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd, would become aware of the discrepancy on Friday.
Authorities began drilling through the rubble and debris on Thursday and have so far scoured an area of 24 meters (79 feet), said Devendra Patwal, a crisis management official. That could require up to 60 meters (197 feet) of drilling to allow trapped personnel to escape, Patwal told The Associated Press.
On Saturday, a team of experts held an assembly to also discuss other possible strategies for rescuing stranded workers, amid considerations that the drill’s high-intensity vibrations may cause more debris to fall and impede efforts.
Previously, rescuers hoped to complete the drilling by Friday night and create an escape tunnel made up of pipes welded together, but rescue efforts ran into a challenge after a loud cracking sound came from inside the tunnel, unexpected for those supervising the operation. who stopped drilling after locating that parts of the device were damaged, NHIDCL director Tarun Kumar Baidya said from the site.
As the rescue operation entered its seventh day, the families of those trapped were frustrated and angry. Relatives from the United States spent nights near the tunnel searching for news. The recent setback has only exacerbated their concerns.
Krishna Patel, whose 20-year-old nephew is among those trapped, had hoped to see his relative on Friday.
“Management helps keep the timeline for their rescue. It’s very frustrating,” he said.
Some employees felt fever and body aches on Wednesday, but the government said their condition had not worsened. Nuts, roasted chickpeas, popcorn, and medicine were sent to them through a pipe every two hours.
Patwal said two doctors at the hospital were in normal contact with the trapped staff to ensure their physical and intellectual well-being. “We are doing everything we can to maintain the morale of the trapped personnel, as it is a difficult time for everyone, both for the rescuers and for the people trapped,” he said.
Construction crews have been stranded since Sunday, when a landslide caused part of the 4. 5-kilometer (2. 8-mile) tunnel they were building about two hundred meters (650 feet) from the front to collapse. The mountainous domain is prone to landslides and subsidence.
It is in Uttarakhand, a mountainous state dotted with Hindu temples that attract many pilgrims and tourists. The structure of roads and buildings has been consistent to cope with the influx.
The tunnel is part of the busy Chardham All-Weather Road, a major federal task connecting Hindu pilgrimage sites.
For the rescue operation, about two hundred rescuers went to the site with drills and excavators, with the intention of pushing 80-centimeter-wide metal pipes through an opening in the excavated rubble.
A device used earlier in the week took a long time to push pipes through the rubble, the state government said. It has been replaced by an American Auger device with a drilling capacity of up to five meters (16 feet) per hour and is supplied with a 99-centimeter (3. 2-foot) diameter tube to remove debris. It was broken and replaced with some other Auger device of the same model, which is in use lately.
State officials contacted Thai experts who helped rescue a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand in 2018, state government administrator Gaurav Singh said. They also contacted the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute for conceivable help.
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