Working overnight with a powerful machine, rescue workers had by Friday drilled up to 22 metres through the rubble in Silkyara tunnel, inching closer to the 40 labourers trapped there for five days.
The workers need to drill up to 60 metres to insert 800 mm and 900 mm diameter pipes one after the other — with the help of a giant drill machine till an escape passage is created for the labourers stuck behind the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel, NHIDCL Director Anshu Manish Khalkho said.
“The trapped workers have been provided food. They are fine. The auger machine is also working well. We pray to god they are evacuated as soon as possible,” Navayuga Enegineering Company Ltd PRO GL Nath told PTI.
