Rescue operation enters full swing as 22-meter pipe reaches trapped workers in Silkyara tunnel collapse

With the completion of pushing of 22.0-meter pipe inside the debris on Friday morning, the rescue operation for the safe evacuation of the 40 trapped labourers at the under-construction Silkyara collapse site in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district is going on in its full swing.

“As of now 22.0 meter pipe pushing has been completed Positioning of fifth pipe is under progress,” a report, issued by National Highways and Infrastructural Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) on Friday morning, said. NHIDCL is involved in the rescue operation.

According to the report, water, food, oxygen, electricity is available inside the collapsed tunnel for the trapped labourers. Small food packets have been pumped inside the tunnel through one pipe with compressed air.


The collapsed Silkyara tunnel, in which 40 labourers are trapped since Sunday, is a part of the Chardham project and it aims to connect Gangotri and Yamunotri. The tunnel collapsed on Sunday.

At the site of the collapse tunnel, the progress in the rescue operation is regularly monitored by the top officials associated with NHIDCL, experts from BRO, NHAI, RVNL, RITES, Indian Railways, IRKON and other prominent institutions.

However, the rescuers remain tightlipped about the time they expect for the completion of pipe pushing work to make a passage for the safe evacuation of the trapped labourers. Their fear is that the pipe pushing work may get delayed if a big boulder comes in the way of the drilling process. “We can pray only for not facing a big boulder during the drilling process,” a source in the rescue team said.

The centre sent an advanced and high-capacity auger drilling machine at the site of collapsed tunnel on Tuesday after the failure of the first machine installed there for drilling. This advanced and high-capacity drilling machine has a capacity to drill five meter per hour. The rescuers aim to penetrate around 50-60 meter debris inside the tunnel to make a passage for the safe evacuation of the trapped labourers.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is continuously monitoring the progress in the rescue operation. On Thursday, general (retd) V K Singh, the union minister of state for road transport and higways, visited the under-construction tunnel site and held a meeting with officials and experts of different agencies involved in the rescue operation.

The trapped labourers are from different states- UP, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Assam and Odisha. The centre is closely monitoring the ongoing rescue operation.