Uttarkashi Tunnel Disaster Day 16: A detailed timeline of rescue operations, unfolding day by day
under-construction tunnel on the Brahmkhal-Yamunotri highway collapse following a landslide at around 5.30 am on the day of Diwali in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi. The district administration launched a rescue operation. - November 13: CM Pushkar Dhami visited the spot and contact is established with the trapped workers through a pipe meant to supply oxygen to them.
Fresh rubble keeps falling from above. - November 14: Steel pipes of 800- and 900-millimetre diameter are brought to the tunnel site to be inserted through the rubble with the help of an auger machine for horizontal digging. However, when more rubble falls from the cavity and two workers sustained minor injuries.
The trapped workers are supplied food, water, oxygen, electricity and medicines. - November 15: Dissatisfied with the first drilling machine, the NHIDCL asks for a state-of-the-art auger machine, which is airlifted from Delhi to speed up the operation. - November 16: The new drilling machine is assembled and installed.
It starts working past midnight. - November 17: The machine drills about 24 metres through the 57-metre stretch rubble stretch by the afternoon and four MS pipes are inserted. However, the process again comes to a halt when the fifth pipe hits an obstacle.
Hence, another high-performance auger machine is flown down from Indore to assist in the rescue efforts. In evening, a big cracking sound was heard in the tunnel and the operation is suspended immediately. - November 18: A team of officials from the PMO and experts who decide to work on five evacuation plans simultaneously, including vertical drilling through the top of the tunnel to rescue the trapped labourers explored alternative options.
Read more on livemint.com
