Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Rescuers involved in the operation to evacuate 41 workers, started welding work on steel pipes in order to restart the horizontal drilling through debris using the US-made auger machine, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials maintained that digging horizontally through the debris of the collapsed section of the Silkyara tunnel remains the focus of the rescue mission, involving various central and state agencies. They added that work on other rescue options, such as drilling vertically from above to reach the trapped workers, was also underway.
“Fabrication of a protective canopy for the drilling machine is underway, with modifications to the augur diameter and welding of the pipeline in progress,” the Union ministry of road transport and highways said in a release.
The horizontal drilling work was halted since Friday as the bearings of the US-made auger machine got damaged after drilling 22 metres through the debris. The heavy-duty machine also encountered a hard boulder, forcing officials to think of other options amid deaf of more boulders falling.
