Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: CM to conduct on-site inspection of relief ops

Amid the ongoing efforts to rescue the workers trapped in the Uttarkashi tunnel a portion of which caved in earlier Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will on Sunday conduct an onsite inspection of the operations the Chief Ministers Office CMO informed through an official releaseThe CM will be accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the tunnel site on SundayAlong with the Chief Minister Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is also arriving to take stock of the relief and rescue work the CMO added in its statementOn Saturday a top official from the Prime Ministers Office PMO took stock of the relief operations at the underconstruction Silkyara Tunnel located on the UttarkashiYamnotri roadThe local administration on Saturday informed that it would deploy a treecutting expert as part of the ongoing efforts to extricate 40 workers trapped inside the tunnel for seven days nowA treecutting expert Ashiq Hussain was called by the Forest Department to the tunnel site officials said on SaturdayOfficials added that they were trying to reach the workers through vertical drilling from the upper part of the tunnelWe were trying to reach them horizontally now we will also try vertically A spot right above the tunnel has been identified and marked A hole will be drilled from there to reach there The depth of the hole would be approximately 300350 feet The horizontal attempt of rescue would also begin from Barkot end of the tunnel said Uttarkashi DFO DP BaluniSharing details of the ongoing rescue operation Bhaskar Khulbe a former advisor to the PMO told ANI Efforts are on to bolster the entire areas strength to the order that it remains totally safe for workers to approach the rescue work that we are intending to do I feel that our concerted effort will yield good results in the coming four to five daysAlso on Saturday Chris Cooper a microtunnelling expert arrived at the Silkyara tunnel incident site to monitor and oversee the rescue operationCooper is a Chartered Engineer with an experienced track record for delivery of Major International key civil engineering infrastructure Metro tunnels Large Caverns Dams Railway and Mining ProjectsI dont have any information as of now I only reached here last night Friday he told ANIThe heavyduty drilling machine which was expected to arrive on Saturday from Indore has also reached the Silkyara tunnel site informed Cooper who is also a consultant for the Rishikesh Karnprayag rail projectThe underconstruction tunnel between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the BrahmakhalYamunotri national highway collapsed in the early hours of November 12This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever