Officials in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district are hopeful that all 40 labourers who were stranded beneath the rubble of a collapsed under-construction tunnel would be able to be evacuated by today, following nearly 70 hours of arduous efforts to rescue them, HT reported.
However, on Tuesday, there was another landslide that made rescue efforts more difficult as debris fell from above, creating a situation akin to a stampede that also injured two labourers.
Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela earlier told reporters, "If everything goes as planned, the trapped labourers will be evacuated by Wednesday."
In an effort to reach the stranded labourers, more than 160 members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organization (BRO), and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are working round the clock.
40 labourers were trapped within the tunnel under construction on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway, which runs between Silkyara and Dandalgaon, which collapsed on Sunday due to a landslide.
Eight mild steel pipes with a diameter of 900 millimetres (nearly three feet) and five pipes with a diameter of 800 millimetres, both of which are six metres long, have been brought to the evacuation site. Using drilling equipment, the plan is to push through both pipes, one after the other, into the debris in order to create an escape route for the workers.
From the Silkayara side, the pipes will be installed through the debris of the 30-metre section that collapsed 270 metres from the tunnel's mouth. Shotcreting, which involves spraying concrete on the debris to stabilize the loose muck, is the process used to insert the pipes. The pipes will be jammed through the debris using a hydraulic jack.
Excavators are clearing the debris for two days as part of the drilling process, which was started on Tuesday with the use of an auger machine.
The State Emergency Operation Center stated that a skilled team of five irrigation department engineers was on the scene to supervise the mild steel pipe insertion procedure through the debris.
The fact that the stranded labourers are constantly being kept in contact and informed that numerous agencies are conducting a massive rescue operation to free them has also helped to boost their morale. On Tuesday, the labourers told Manikant Mishra, the commandant of Uttarakhand's SDRF, that they were "doing well."
According to news agency PTI, one of the trapped labourers, son of Gabbar Singh Negi, was allowed to speak with his father on Tuesday, and he stated that they were safe.
Still, medication was provided for one of the stranded labourers who was experiencing nausea.