On Saturday, November 25, 2023, the auger drilling machine that was creating a hole in the Silkyara tunnel broke down. Meanwhile, the army began its manual drilling at the Silkyara tunnel following the removal of major obstacles in Plan A of the rescue operation. For the unversed, the rescue operation of 41 trapped workers inside the collapsed under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, has entered its 15th day. The trapped workers are hoping that they will come out of the tunnel one day but every day the rescuers face a new challenge in drilling the tunnel. After dropping Plan A, the Army has come to the fore for manual drilling at the site. For more details and updates regarding the same, you need to go through this article till the end. Swipe down the page for more details.
On Monday, November 27, 2023, i.e. yesterday, the road transport and highways ministry issued a statement to confirm that the auger machines have been fully pulled out on Monday night at 3 am. The statement which came up with the updates till 1:30 pm on Monday further claimed, “After visual inspection by welders it is found that the cutter of augur has been entangled with lattice girder bars that damaged the 1.5 meters of length of 800 millimeter passage pipe. Further, cutting of these lattice bars is under progress,”
The Road Transport and Highways Ministry further claimed that a manual drift procedure will be applied to clear the last few meters to access the other side following the clearance of 800 mm rescue pipe from all the obstructions including auger machines. National Disaster Management Authority member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain on Monday said at the press conference on the rescue efforts the last 15 meters of horizontal drilling seemed to be tough as the first 47 meters had few obstacles, but a “concentrated” volume of lattice bars and concrete was being found in the last stretch which further complicated the operation.
It is said that the operation is likely to continue with the manual drilling method even if a new auger machine is available, as another such breakdown, the subsequent cutting, and pulling out exercise may waste another couple of days in the evacuation of 41 trapped workers. Therefore, no official deadline for the manual rescue operation has not been given by Hasnain as there was no estimate of the challenges in the form of more iron,