Fresh hurdles have emerged in ongoing rescue operations being conducted at Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand as machines have again stopped. Efforts are now being made manually to inch closer to the trapped 41 workers.
"Auger machine has encountered some difficulty again and that's why it's being dismantled again. Simultaneously efforts are being made to way to trapped workers manually," an officer in the knowledge of the operation said.
According to him, it seems that workers are unlikely to come out tonight now.
"We are analysing the debris and trying to figure out if they can push through it or if it can be cut manually," he said.
The workers have been trapped for the past 12 days after a portion of the under-construction tunnel on the Uttarakhand Char Dham route collapsed on November 12.
Here are the LIVE updates on the rescue operations:
In the second such setback in two days, drilling at the Uttarakhand tunnel where 41 labourers are trapped had to be stopped today evening after the auger machine encountered a metallic object.
Drilling at Uttarakhand tunnel to rescue 41 trapped workers has been halted again, officials said.
Only 10-12 metres of drilling is left for rescuers to reach the 41 construction workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel for the 13th day now, but giving a timeframe for the rescue is difficult because unexpected hurdles have been delaying the work, senior officials said today afternoon.
The forty-one workers who are trapped under a collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand for 13 days will be pulled out on wheeled stretchers one by one through a big pipe that is being pushed inside to reach them.