6-inch wide pipe pushed through Uttarkashi tunnel

Foreign expert arrives

International tunnelling expert Arnold Dix reached the disaster site to review rescue efforts. He heads the Geneva-based International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.

Uttarkashi: Rescuers on Monday pushed through a six-inch-wide pipeline through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel, a breakthrough that will help them supply larger quantities of food and possibly allow live visuals of the 41 workers trapped inside for eight days.

Earlier, a four-inch existing tube was being used to supply oxygen and items like dry fruit and medicines into the section of the tunnel beyond the rubble of the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel on the Char Dham route in Uttarakhand.

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) director Anshu Manish Khalkho called it the “first breakthrough” at the site. “We have sent the pipe 53 metres to the other side of the rubble and the trapped workers can hear and experience us,” he said.

Drones and robots from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have also been brought to the site to look into the possibility of other escape routes for the trapped men. But rescue workers were yet to resume the horizontal drilling through the debris after a boulder appeared to block the progress of the heavy-duty auger machine earlier this week. Rescuers are also preparing to exercise the option of drilling more than 80 metres down into the hill to reach the workers. A road has been laid for heavy drilling machinery used by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to get to the top.