Silkyara tunnel rescue operations entered 16th day with slow but steady pace, hopes pins of rat mining

Rescuers hopeful of breakthrough in Silkyara tunnel rescue op; Army's 'rat miners' commence manual horizontal drilling; vertical drilling reaches 36m; 8 'false ribs' erected; robot to monitor health of workers and detect hazardous gases.

Despite multiple setbacks, officials were hopeful of a breakthrough in their operation to rescue the 41 workers trapped in Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, as manual horizontal drilling commenced on Monday. The digging is being carried out by Indian Army’s ‘rat miners’.  

Simultaneously, vertical drilling too was carried out, and reached a depth of 36 metres till 7 p.m. Vertically, rescuers need to drill through 86 metres of mountain while manual horizontal drilling must be undertaken for a further 10-12 metres. They covered 0.9 metres on Monday.  

Also read: Uttarkashi tunnel collapse Live Updates on November 27, 2023

Uttarakhand Government Secretary Neeraj Khairwal told presspersons in the evening that after over three days, all the parts of the “broken” U.S.-made Auger machine were removed from the drilling area and manual drilling had commenced.

“After we removed the Auger, it was found that the machine had also damaged 1.9 meters of pipe. We managed to cut that out as well. By working manually, which started in the evening, the rat miners managed to cover 0.9 metres which is obviously the part where the broken Auger was stuck,” said Mr. Khairwal, who added that he hoped that the workers would get evacuated soon through horizontal drilling.

Speaking about rat mining, a senior official in State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) said it is a method generally used in Meghalaya to extract coal from narrow pits dug into the ground. The rat miners generally make holes only large enough for one person.