PTI
As the first visuals of the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand emerged Tuesday, officials said they have resumed the stalled operation to evacuate them through an escape passage cutting across the debris.
A press release issued in the evening by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in Delhi said the NHIDCL has resumed the “horizontal boring operation from the Silkyara end” that involved an auger machine. At another press briefing in Silkyara a little later in the evening, it became clear that the actual drilling was set to begin later in the day.
Rescuers also set off two blasts at the Balkot-end of the under-construction tunnel on the Char Dham route, beginning the process of drilling another tunnel – an alternative to the Silkyara-end option – to evacuate workers trapped inside for nine days. But this approach could take up to 40 days.
