As rescue operation at Uttarkashi tunnel site entered its fourth day, tunnel workers and locals took to protest outside the incident spot against the administration and the construction company. They accused the administration of not doing enough to rescue those trapped inside, reports The Indian Express.
The 4.5-km tunnel is being constructed by Navayuga Engineering Company under the supervision of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL). The tunnel, planned under the all-weather road project, was expected to be completed by next February.
‘The Navyuga officials are not talking to us properly, neither there is any actual information of what is happening inside. We are also not allowed to go inside the tunnel. It’s the fourth day and nothing conclusive is happening. Those inside are our brothers,” Luv Kumar Raturi, a worker told IE.
On Sunday, a part of the tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway caved in following a landslide. The 30-metre collapsed section is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side, the State Emergency Operation Centre in Dehradun said.
A team of 160 rescuers from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Roads Organisation, Rapid Action Force and the health department have been on the spot since Sunday.
According to a list of the trapped workers issued by the District Emergency Operation Centre, 15 are from Jharkhand, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five from Odisha, four from Bihar, three from West Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam, and one from Himachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a fresh landslide hampered efforts to insert steel pipes through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel to bring out the 40 labourers trapped under the debris. The falling debris, caused a stampede-like situation, due to which two rescue workers were injured, who were sent to the makeshift hospital established on the site, reported PTI.
Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela had earlier said that drilling to insert the pipes to create a passage for the labourers began with the help of an ‘auger machine’.
The plan is to push through both 800- and 900-millimetre diameter sections of mild steel pipes — one after the other — into the rubble using drilling equipment and create an escape passage for the workers. Officials said that they are safe and are being provided with oxygen, water, food packets and medicines through tubes.
There are eight 900-millimetre diameter pipes with a length of six metres each and five pipes of 800-millimetre diameter of the same length, the State Emergency Operation Centre said.