Drilling at Silkyara tunnel on hold for another day, workers await rescue

Drilling at the collapsed Silkyara tunnel to evacuate 41 workers trapped inside for 12 days was yet resume Friday evening, a day after it was put on hold following a snag.

Officials said in the afternoon that technical issues have been sorted and the drilling was set to resume in a couple of hours. But till evening there was no announcement that the auger machine had begun drilling through the remaining stretch of about 12 metres.

A ground penetrating radar has indicated that there are no metal hurdles up to five metres ahead of the passage drilled so far, Neeraj Khairwal, the state’s nodal officer for the multi-agency rescue effort said.