How Border Roads Organisation Aided The Himalayan Rescue Op

The much-awaited breakthrough and the rescue of the 41 workers trapped in the Silkiyara Tunnel since November 12 has moved the focus back on the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) - the resilient force behind the Himalayan operation.

The Silkiyara Tunnel, which is being built by the NHIDCL on the Yamunotri National Highway connecting Silkiyara to Barkot, collapsed between chainage 206 m at the Silkiyara end and spread to chainage 260 m towards the Barkot end. "Soon after the collapse, the BRO was mobilised to assist the central and the state government agencies in the rescue. Project Shivalik of BRO was employed to assist in various tasks in support of the rescue operations," the BRO said in a statement.

This 4531 m long tunnel will shorten the road distance by 26 Km & 45 minutes of travel time. The tunnel is designed as a single tube tunnel with two lanes divided by a vertical partition wall. The tunnel is being constructed in extremely weak rock mass constituting meta-siltstone and phyllites. The 15 m diameter of the tunnel makes its construction technically intricate. 

The BRO was made the nodal agency to coordinate with several agencies, including the Army, the NDRF, the SDRF, and the ONGC among others, involved in the rescue operations. 

Given its tunneling experience, the BRO was also instrumental in giving valuable inputs when rescue options were being evaluated.

"The BRO was immediately involved in the planning and execution of the side draft near the site. The BRO coordinated the American Auger Machine's movement from Delhi to Dehradun and to the site at Silkiyara and ensured it was functional at the site by November 15. Since then, the BRO has been coordinating the move of equipment like drill machines, pipes of various sizes, etc by coordinating and interacting with the Air Force, the civil aviation ministry, and various central and state government agencies," the statement read.

The American Auger Machine progressed 47 m across the collapsed zone and got stuck on November 24. The BRO sprung into action and moved the plasma-cutting machine from the DRDO in Hyderabad to the site.

"In addition, four more options were being considered to increase the probability of successful rescue operations. The first approach was a vertical drill of 1.2 m diameter planned from the top of the hill by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. A drill hole was planned at chainage 306 m from the Silkiyara end. For this, the BRO was asked to recce and provide an 1150m approach road to the drilling site.

"In another option, ONGC planned a vertical drill from the Barkot end for which the equipment was mobilised. For this approach, the BRO was asked to provide a track up to the drilling site," it added.

Given the involvement of a large number of agencies, the BRO was tasked with coordinating with 12 Air Force stations, Airports Authority of India, DRDO, ONGC, NTRO, CISF, Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority and state civil administration and police to provide a green route. 

The organisation also helped with moving the critical technical manpower for the rescue ops. This included the critical welders who were moved in a night operation to the site.

All 41 men trapped underground in a tunnel in Uttarakhand's Silkyara were rescued late Tuesday, ending a frantic 17-day multi-agency op that relied, in the final stretch, on the banned manual "rat-hole"-mining technique employed after high-tech machines, or augers, failed to drill through the nearly 60 metres of rock that threatened to bury the workers.