Manual drilling will start soon to cut through the debris that separates rescuers from the 41 trapped workers in the collapsed portion of the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, officials informed on Saturday.
Ground Penetrating Radar, also known as GPR, Georadar, Subsurface Interface Radar, or Geo-probing Radar, is a totally non-destructive technique to produce a cross-section profile of the subsurface without any drilling, trenching or ground disturbances.
Addressing a press briefing in New Delhi, Syed Ata Hasnain said, "Using ground penetrating radar, it has been detected that there is no obstacle in the next 5 metres on our path. We continue to use this to detect obstacles, if any. There is hope that the movement of the augor is done and wil
"The responsibility of saving the precious lives of 41 people trapped in the tunnel is on all of us. The people involved in the campaign will have to work day and night to make the mission successful with full efficiency, capacity, promptness and caution. There will be no shortage of resourc
"The rescue operation is in its last step. PM Modi is taking all the updates about the difficulties that workers might face and discussing the solutions. Both the central and state government's agencies are working together for the rescue operation. We hope that soon this operation will be c
"The auger drilling machine has been reassembled. A new pipe will be put in after the welding, which will take two hours. After two hours, we will push the pipe inside the tunnel. We hope that we push the pipe further this time and will face no obstacles," Additional Secretary Ahmed said.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel on Friday carried out a demonstration of the movement of wheeled stretchers through the pipeline inserted to extricate 41 workers trapped in a portion of the Silkyara tunnel of Uttarkashi, which collapsed over a week ago.
The platform on which the equipment was mounted had developed some cracks when the rescue operation was underway on Thursday, and the process of horizontal drilling through the debris had to be paused.
Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, General (retd) VK Singh, reached the Silkyara tunnel site on Friday to take stock of the ongoing efforts to rescue 41 trapped workers.
"The problem encountered in the platform on which the American auger machine was mounted has been fixed and now the machine is running smoothly on the platform," a top official told ANI.
Talking to ANI here on Friday morning, Khulbe said that the platform on which the Augur drilling machine developed some cracks yesterday has been revamped now.