New Delhi: Relatives of the 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed mountain tunnel in Uttarakhand heaved a sigh of relief Tuesday after rescue teams established audio-visual contact with them.
Multiple teams from Indian and international agencies pushed in an endoscope flexible camera through a 6-inch pipeline to gauge how the men were faring, 10 days after they were locked in behind stubborn rubble in the 4.5-kilometre, under-construction Silkyara-Dandalgaon tunnel on a national highway in Uttarkashi.
The first video released showed the workers – wearing yellow-and-white helmets – receiving food through the pipeline and talking to each other. After nearly nine days of dry food, the workers were provided warm khichdi in glass bottles on Monday via the same pipeline that was shoved through debris.
The wife of one of the men told news agency ANI that she could not spot her husband in the video, but hopes were running high after seeing the other workers. “Ummeed jagi hai,” she said.
It is understood the men will also be sent mobile phones and chargers through this 6-inch “lifeline”, as rescue proceeds on a war footing to bring them out.
International tunnel expert Arnold Dix, brought in to help with the rescue, has said the men “were coming home for sure” after he surveyed the multi-pronged operation in progress.
Dix is the president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association – a non-profit that currently has 78 member nations and 266 corporate or individual affiliate members.
“We have driven in the 6-inch lifeline pipe. Work is being done to get that fully functioning. It has got the vision for the moment, but to get it even working better… Works are being done for augering of the evacuation tunnel which is being drilled as well,” he said.
Dix added that efforts were on to create safe places inside the tunnel. “This is still an extremely dangerous environment. We are also making it safe for the rescuers as well. There will be technical issues till the men are rescued… and beyond.”
The tunnelling expert added that an American augering or drilling machine – flown in for the rescue – was not working at the moment, but “was in preparation”. “The augering requires very precise engineering, because there could be an avalanche if anything went wrong.”
Dix said his next job would be to go up the side, top and back of the mountain to check the progress there.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to be in touch with the state administration, urging them again Tuesday that their first priority was to bring out the workers safe and healthy.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on X that he had spoken to Modi in the morning, apprising him of the success of the new pipeline
Also read: 10 days after Uttarkashi tunnel collapse, first visuals of the 41 workers trapped inside released