Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Vertical drilling begins, rescue shaft enters 20 metres on first day
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Nearly 20 meters were entered by vertical drilling as efforts to rescue 41 labourers trapped since the collapse of the portion of the under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi ended on Day 15. This was the first day of adopting the new vertical approach after 14 days of horizontal drilling gave no results. The vertical approach was one of the five options on which preparatory work had begun some days back, as anxiety mounted over the fate of the trapped men. Notably, Rescue workers have to drill down 86 metres to reach the tunnel. By evening, the heavy drilling equipment had bored down to about 19.5 metres. National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) managing director Mahmood Ahmed said vertical boring would be over by Thursday if there are no hurdles. Earlier, the officials shifted their focus to two alternatives — manual drilling through the remaining 10-12 metre stretch of the rubble or drilling down around 86 metres from above.(vertical drilling). The blades of the augering machine drilling through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel were on Saturday stuck in the debris, forcing officials to consider switching to other options that could drag on the rescue by several weeks more.
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