‘Don’t worry, we’ll reach you soon’: Visual contact made with trapped men, officials spell out rescue timeline

NEW DELHI, Nov 22
After a series of setbacks, the tenth day of the operation to rescue 41 workers trapped inside the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel brought a small sense of relief to their families after the administration finally established a visual communication with the men.
A six-inch pipe that had successfully reached the men on Monday to supply essential commodities was used to send an endoscopic camera to the other side.
A 2-minute, 23-second video released by the administration shows the camera reaching the other end of the pipe at 3.45 am Tuesday, and a rescuer asking the men peeking into the pipe if they are okay.
“If all are okay, show your faces to the camera, raise your hand and smile. We will soon reach you, don’t worry. Slowly pull the camera and show everyone,” said a rescuer as a worker put his hand inside the pipe and pulled the camera. At 3.53 am, a rescuer instructed them to clear the camera using a piece of cloth.
When the camera went inside, giving a wide-angle view of the tunnel, the rescuers started recognising the men. “Vishal Vishal. This one is Vishwajeet. The one next to him is Subodh,” said a rescuer outside, pointing at the face on a screen.
As operation in-charge Colonel Deepak Patil mentioned they should clear the pipe using water and a compressor, a rescuer announced the same and instructed the workers to put the camera back in the pipe and move away.
Meanwhile, the rescue operation moved at a moderate pace on Tuesday with various government agencies being mobilised for their assigned tasks. According to a brief issued by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited has resumed horizontal boring from the Silkyara end, where the debris is, to rescue workers using a boring machine.
This is one of five approaches being taken by rescuers.
In Delhi, top officials held a briefing on the rescue operation. They, too, said that horizontal boring from the Silkyara end to rescue workers has resumed and if no obstacle comes in the way, the men would be rescued in two to two and a half days.
Anurag Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, said: “Every effort has its expected time limit. When we started the work, the augur was supposed to be the best and the fastest… We have started the work again with the American augur machine; if it is successful then there will remain only two-three days’ work.”
“We have also started making side drift with the help of the Indian Army, which may take 10-12 days… We are also ready for vertical (drilling), machines for which have reached. We are also ready to make a horizontal tunnel from the left side, which takes 10-15 days.”
“THDC has started horizontal drilling from the back side (Barkot end), which may take up to 35-40 days. The work is going on for the left side horizontal drift also,” he said.
“We have mobilised all equipment for vertical drilling to deal with any extreme situation. But there, geology is fragile… If we could do the vertical (drilling), then we will finish it soon,” Jain said.
“If everything comes out favourable and the machine makes its way in a single go, then the work which we have started today morning should be completed within two to two and a half days,” he said. “If hard rock comes in the way, we will have to take out our machine. We will have to break that rock, which results in a time penalty of five hours. The time will depend on how many times we are required to do that.”