Indian army digs by hand to free 41 workers trapped in tunnel for two weeks
- Soldiers plan to use a so-called ‘rathole mining’ technique, digging by hand to clear the rocks and rubble over the remaining nine metres
- Efforts to rescue the 41 construction workers have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris and repeated breakdowns of drilling machines
Indian military engineers were preparing to dig by hand on Monday to reach 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for 16 days, a rescue operation hit by repeated setbacks.
Soldiers plan to use a so-called “rathole mining” technique, digging by hand to clear the rocks and rubble over the remaining nine metres (29 feet), with temperatures plummeting in the remote mountain location in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Last week, engineers working to drive a metal pipe horizontally through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the earth, snapping a giant earth-boring augur machine.
“The broken parts of the auger [drilling] machine stuck inside the tunnel have been removed”, senior local civil servant Abhishek Ruhela said on Monday, after a specialised superheated plasma cutter was brought in to clear the metal.
Indian Army engineering battalion personnel, along with other rescue officers, are preparing to do rathole mining
“Preparations are being made to start manual drilling work,” he added. “Indian Army engineering battalion personnel, along with other rescue officers, are preparing to do rathole mining”.
