There has been no progress since Thursday in drilling through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttrakhand to bring out the 41 workers trapped inside, the National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) has informed.
NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Friday that about 15 metres of drilling is still left to reach the stranded workers.
The drilling work was stopped after the auger machine developed some cracks on Thursday, Hasnain said, adding that the repair work is being done to restart the process.
The machine should be able to drill about 4-5 metres in an hour if there is no obstacles, the official said.
"It is a difficult and challenging operation," Hasnain said, while advising the media not to speculate on the timeline for completion of the rescue operations as it creates a wrong perception.
Mahmood Ahmed, Additional Secretary Technical, Road and Transport, said the augur drilling machine has been reassembled and they hope to push the pipe further this time with no obstacles.
"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," Ahmed was quoted as saying by ANI.
He said two more pipes of six metres each have to be inserted to get a breakthrough.
"This is our own estimation and understanding. These estimations are based on certain realities but they are all assumptions and not to be taken exactly, but we hope to be there someway," said the official.
The machine developed cracks on Thursday, hours after the operation resumed earlier in the day, following a six-hour delay to cut through an iron girder that came in the way of the auger machine late Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the rescue mission is in its last step and expressed hope that the mission will be completed soon.
“All the agencies of both the central and state governments are working together for the rescue operation. We hope that soon this operation will be completed and all the workers will come out,” he told reporters.
Forty-one workers have been trapped for the last 12 days after a portion of the road tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway in Uttarkashi collapsed in the early morning on November 12.