Uttarakhand tunnel rescue: Vertical drilling done up to 31 metres, says BRO's ex-DG at Silkyara site

Former DG of Border Roads Organisation Harpal Singh on Monday said that vertical drilling from above the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel has been done up to 31 metres at the site of the rescue operation. Drilling 86 metres vertically is required to create an escape route for the 41 workers who have been stuck for the past 15 days. The second alternative is to lay pipes with a diameter of 1.2 metres vertically through the roof of the tunnel.

According to him, plans are also in place to begin manually drilling horizontally inside the main tube. With the auger equipment broken, rescuers need to physically dig 10 to 12 metres through the debris.

"Frames of 800 mm diameter pipes have been prepared. We will move ahead by half a metre to one metre gradually. If all goes well and no obstacles are encountered a 10-metre stretch can be covered in 24-36 hours," PTI quoted Singh.


Officials had to give up the 25-ton auger drill on Friday night after it got stuck while boring into the rubble. The auger drill is a corkscrew like machine and has a rotating blade at the front end.

On Sunday night, portions of the auger were allowed to be removed from an area measuring 8.15 metres. To allow for hand drilling and pipe pushing, which is the last stage with around 12 metres remaining, the machine's shaft and fins had to be fully removed from the debris. The machine has now been disassembled completely.

(With PTI inputs)