Uttarkashi: Rescue workers broke through the 60-metre stretch of rubble in Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand Tuesday, ending the ordeal of 41 workers trapped inside for 16 days.
A senior Uttarakhand official at the site said drilling was complete.
Asked by reporters, NHIDCL managing director Mahmood Ahmed did not immediately confirm the development but said the last section of the escape pipe was being pushed through the drilled passage.
Earlier, a worker from the Trenchless company, which is pushing the pipes with the auger machine, said if no hurdles are faced, some good news could be expected by this evening.
Rat-hole mining is a controversial and hazardous procedure in which miners in small groups go down narrow burrows to excavate small quantities of coal.
Uttarakhand government’s nodal officer Neeraj Khairwal made it clear that the men brought to the site were not rat-hole miners but people who are experts in the technique.
They are likely to be divided into teams of two or three. Each team will go into the steel chute laid into the escape passage for brief periods. Rajput Rai, a rat-hole drilling expert, said one man will do the drilling, another collects the rubble with his hands and the third places it on a trolley to be pulled out.
A portion of the tunnel collapsed November 12, blocking the exit of 41 workers inside.
PTI