According to government sources, all the workers admitted to the health centre are being given food as per the doctors' advice
After facing numerous obstacles in the past two and a half weeks, the operations were completed following a coordinated push by Army engineers and rat-hole miners
The safe return of the labour brothers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel of Uttarkashi is very happy news. My heartiest congratulations to them and their families
Vertical drilling from the top of the Silkyara tunnel, where 41 workers have been trapped for the last 15 days, progressed to 31 metres on Monday as a team of rat-hole miners arrived at the site to start manual drilling horizontally through the rubble. Vertical and manual horizontal drilling are the two methods on which rescue efforts are being focused at the moment. Work on the other options, such as horizontal drilling from the Barkot end of the tunnel is also underway. A total of 86 metres have to be drilled vertically to prepare an escape passage. Pipes of 1.2 metres in diameter have to be laid vertically through the top of the tunnel on which work began on Sunday as a second option to reach the stranded labourers. Lt Gen Harpal Singh (retd), former engineer-in-chief of the Army, informed reporters in Silkyara that vertical drilling has been done up to 31 metres. Singh, who has also headed the Border Roads Organisation, is involved in the rescue operation. The 200-mm diameter .
A BSNL official, said they are in the process of sending a small landline phone to the stranded workers through the pipe. "Through this, they will be able to talk directly to their families," he said
Rescue workers were set to begin drilling at the collapsed Silkyara tunnel Friday after putting it on hold for several hours, following a snag that delayed the operation to evacuate 41 men trapped inside for 12 days, officials said. Officials, at an afternoon news briefing, said that the technical problem that stalled the drilling on Wednesday had been set right, and the operation would begin in the next couple of hours. The boring would resume after the another section of steel pipes is welded to the chute already pushed through, they said. A ground penetrating radar has indicated that there are no metal hurdles up to five metres ahead of the passage bored through the debris of the tunnel's collapsed portion. There is no technical problem with the auger machine, but the rescue workers needed to strengthen the platform on which it is mounted, the officials said. The machine had drilled up to 48 metres in the rubble to create the escape passage. The steel pipe -- the pathway to ...
The NDRF on Friday conducted a rehearsal of how it would take its wheeled stretchers through the chute being prepared to rescue the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel. An NDRF personnel went through the passage, pushing a wheeled stretcher tied to a rope at the end of the tunnel and was pulled back up after completing the stretch. A passage has been made using 800 mm diameter steel pipes through the rubble at the tunnel to rescue the workers who have been trapped inside for the past 12 days. An NDRF personnel who went into the passage was lying on the wheeled stretcher facing downwards. There was enough room inside the pipes and he had no difficulty in breathing during the exercise, he said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has been camping at Matli since Thursday to closely monitor the rescue operations. A temporary camp of the chief minister's office has been set up there to help him perform his daily duties. The drilling and pushing pipes through the rubble has n
The ongoing rescue work entered its 13th day on Friday, with the trapped workers deemed safe and in good spirits
An iron mesh that came in the path of the drilling machine creating an escape passage for the workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel was removed on Thursday morning but has delayed the rescue operation by 12 to 14 hours, a senior official said. Former advisor to the prime minister's office Bhaskar Khulbe said removing the mesh in a claustrophobic environment inside the pipe was difficult. "It took us six hours to remove it. But the good news is that we have cleared the hurdle which came yesterday after drilling up to 45 metres had been done," Khulbe told reporters. Now the process of assembling to go beyond 45 metres which requires welding the pipes has been restarted. The drilling will also resume soon, he said. It will take around 12 to 14 hours more to complete the whole operation of reaching the workers. After that, it will take three more hours to take out the workers one by one. That will be done with the help of NDRF, Khulbe said. Union Minister of State for Road Transport
A 15-man strong NDRF team led by a commandant has been tasked to take out one by one the 41 labourers stuck for the last 10 days in the collapsed Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi. The evacuation method which involves a series of 800 mm diameter steel pipes has proven to be a big challenge for the rescuers so far. The NDRF jawans have conducted a mock drill on how they will go through the pipe to the other side of the rubble where the labourers are stuck, NDRF second-in-command (2 ic) Ravi Shankar Badhani told PTI. A team of doctors has been deployed inside the tunnel as well as ambulances outside for the safe passage of the rescued. According to the evacuation plan, wheel-fitted low-height stretchers will be taken to the other side where workers are trapped, a government source said. The men from the National Disaster Response Force, wearing oxygen kits, will crawl through the pipe carrying a stretcher, a rope, and oxygen kits for workers. "The stretcher will be tied with ropes from
Rescue operations are ongoing for 40 trapped workers by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF)
The NDRF teams say they have been able to establish communication with the trapped workers and all of them are in a safe position
Heavy rainfall lashed several parts of Nagpur for the last two days. The weather agency has already announced an alert for rainfall for Saturday as well
Administration of the Narmada district, ordered schools and colleges to remain shut on Monday, in view of flood reports in many villages after water was released from the Narmada Dam
State-owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has designed and manufactured a vehicle for the National Disaster Response Force to respond to incidents involving hazardous chemicals, biological or radiological substances, a release said. The first CBRN (Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear) HAZMAT (Hazardous Material) vehicle for NDRF was flagged off at BEL's Pune unit on Wednesday, it said. This vehicle is yet another achievement in BEL's Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives, said the release. The vehicle is used to detect, monitor and respond to hazardous chemical, biological or radiological incidents, where it is vital to plug or seal the source of contamination to contain any further release of hazardous substances, the release said. The vehicle has a spacious operator compartment integrated with a wide range of user-friendly Chemical-Biological-Radiation-Nuclear detection and identification sensors, it said. It has a hand-held thermal imager, providing night vis
Over 50 people were stranded in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district following a cloudburst and have been rescued by the NDRF, officials said on Friday. The cloudburst took place in Shehnu Gouni village on Thursday and also triggered a landslide that blocked roads at many places. A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) travelled 15 km on foot to rescue the stranded people, including 15 children, and shift them to safe places, the officials said. In another rain-related incident, the Maranwala bridge in Baddi connecting industrial Baddi area and Pinjaur collapsed on Friday following heavy flow of water in Balad river due to recent rains. No loss of life was reported in the incident, officials said. "The Maranwala Bridge has been washed away and traffic has been diverted through Kalka-Kalujhanda-Barotiwala road," Superintendent of Police, Baddi, Mohit Chawala told PTI. Heavy rains in the state have led to closure of 709 roads. So far 242 people have died in rain-related
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Water has started to recede from flood-hit areas of Ferozepur district even as relief operations continued in villages near the banks of the Sutlej river, officials said on Monday. More than 3,000 people have been rescued so far, they said. On Monday, 1.60 lakh cusec of water was released downstream from the Harike headworks and 1.55 lakh cusecs from the Hussainiwala headworks, according to the officials. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, Border Security Force and the Punjab Police are assisting the district administration in the relief and rescue operation. Four additional NDRF teams have joined the two deployed earlier to evacuate the stranded people. "Around 28 boats have been pressed into service to evacuate the people. At one time, eight to 10 people are being rescued," said an official, adding that efforts are being made to convince those who are still in their villages to move to safer locations. "The water level receded today and it will also h
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Earlier, NDRF on Thursday said that a total of 13 bodies, among 21 people who went missing after a massive landslide, have been recovered