The nation woke up to cheerful news on Tuesday as the first visuals from the collapsed Silkyara Tunnel, where 41 workers have been trapped for the last nine days, revealed all of them healthy.
Though the rescue work is facing a brief setback after the narrow road to the tunnel prevents the movement of the piling machine, Arnold Dix, an international tunnel expert, has expressed confidence that all 41 men would be rescued.
Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, has been roped in as part of the ongoing rescue efforts. Praising the rescue efforts as fantastic, Dix told reporters: "I think the team here have done a wonderful job. The 900-mm pipeline is one of the options. The 900 pipe is there and I'm going to go have another look at it this morning. It's by far the best and fastest means to get the men, but it has its technical difficulties and that's why we're doing multiple rescue missions," Dix told ANI.
Elaborating on the mission, Dix said they are yet not sure which way the rescue would be carried out. "We've got mission from the top, missions from the front, mission from the side. The men are coming home. We're just not sure which door they're going to use..Maybe that will work. We're knocking on the top door. We're knocking on all these doors. Which one opens? Not sure," he added.
He said two locations have been identified for the vertical drilling, and both are on the Silkyara side of the high-altitude under-construction tunnel. "We're going to rescue these men. When I arrived here, I said, there's 41 men coming home and there's no one else going to be hurt," Dix added.
PM dials Dhami
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday to enquire about the rescue operation. In a post on X, Dhami said he told Modi that the workers are safe and the prime minister underlined that the rescue mission is the topmost priority.
In his post, Dhami said he informed the prime minister about the successful insertion of a six-inch pipeline through the rubble which will be used for providing food in larger quantities and other necessary items to the workers. "Honourable prime minister was informed about the conversation with the workers through the endoscopic camera and their wellbeing. The prime minister said it is our top priority to rescue all the workers safely," Dhami said.