A parallel tunnel to be built at Silkyara to evacuate trapped workers, drilling work stopped temporarily. Rescue team aggressively on the job

Today is the seventh day since 41 workers of the company associated with the construction work of the Silkyara and Daandalpani. Uttarkashi tunnel have been trapped inside due to a portion of it falling down with tremendous debris and rocky material.

The workers inside, majority of them from Bihar and Jharkhand and from Uttarakhand, UP have now become too weak though there is regular supply of oxygen, food and fruit items through pipeline.

However, after the drilling having been done till 22 metres the work have been suspended due to the problem in the American drilling machine.

The official of the NHIDCL company involved in the tunnel project said that the massive vibration created by the American drilling machine may result in further breaking of the tunnel and further debris may fall resulting in more damage and risk to lives.

While carrying out the drilling work aggressively and piercing the Boulder pipes into the Rocky debris lot of hurdle is being created as the drilling machine is not working on the rocky debris .

On Friday when the drilling work of fourth pipe was being carried out the machine confronted a very hard rocky material that didn’t allow the boring machine to drill further, rather damaged leading to stoppage of the work till another drilling machine or the part damaged will be brought in.

However, the workers before the machine being damaged had gone inside through a pipe and removed the Rocky debris after great efforts.

Meanwhile, according to a latest news, efforts are being made to dig another parallel tunnel to reach the rescuers to save them as six days have already passed and today is the seventh day. Yesterday the frustrated and angered people and relatives of those trapped inside had protested raising slogans against the company, holding them responsible for the lapses and not able to rescue thise trapped inside the tunnel despite six days already elapsing.

There are reports of the relatives of those stuck inside having reached the accident site from Bihar, Jharkhand and other parts and are stay put there praying for the safe evacuation of their near and dear ones who are believed to have become weak and desperate with no hope of success as on date.

However, the NDRF, SDRF, BRO, police and other authorities are aggressively engaged on the rescue operation finding best possible option to evacuate the workers stuck inside the tunnel.

The chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami had visited the site two days ago and had assured that the trapped workers will be evacuated at the earliest with state government providing all possible help and support.

Meanwhile, the State Secretary of Communist Party of India ( ML) Indresh Maikhuri has accused the company involved in the tunnel project solely responsible for gross negligence resulting in the breakage of a part of the tunnel and subsequent trapping of 40 workers including failing to evacuate them even after seven days.

According to Maikhuri while speaking to PNS, Uttarakhand, in the year 2021 the Supreme Court accorded permission to the said tunnel project stating that the best available practices should to adopted and adhered to, in this project but the Silkyara incident suggests that the directives / advice of the apex court weren’t followed resulting in the ongoing mishappening.

Maikhuri said that this is not the first incident that has taken place in Silkyara but in July 2020 when a retaining wall constructed by the same company collapsed due to negligence and utter failure, in Kheda village, Narendra Nagar three children had brutally died due to asphyxiation under the massive debris. As if this, was not enough 7 labourers had died after being buried under debris od road while on the job of road construction on December 21, 2018 at Rudraprayag, Gauri Kund Road. He also targeted the NHAI for irresponsibly working in a huge over ambitious all weather road project by not only cutting thousand of trees, throwing massive dust, muck and stones in the running rivers polluting them but also by way of devastating the state from the unplanned and environment unfriendly construction with eighty percent of tunnels in roads project as well as in Rishikesh Karnprayag rail projects making the hill thoroughly holle from inside which already comes under Zone 5 and vulnerable to tectonic upheavals and earthquakes.

According to Ajith Rathi always active on X on people centric issues : Today six days have passed and 40 lives are still imprisoned in the tunnel of Silkyara, Uttarkashi. When the American Auger machine started working yesterday, expectations were skyrocketed. But yesterday the work started at 11 am and by 10.30 am 24 meters of pipes were drilled and laid, the result was not as expected and today the machine stood silent the whole day, there were all kinds of discussions, the machine was stopped to cool down. Yes, the bearing of the machine got damaged, some hard metal came in the way of the machine, so many things. But the campaign did not move two steps forward to free the lives trapped in the tunnel. Now another machine is coming from Indore which will reach tomorrow wrote Rathi on X from ground zero.