Uttarakhand: Rescue teams start drilling inside Tapovan tunnel

Dehradun | Thursday | 11th February, 2021

Summary:

On Thursday, the rescue teams have begun a drilling operation to peep into the Tapovan tunnel where nearly 30 people were feared trapped.

Earlier, numerous efforts to dig the trapped people inside the tunnel, could not go far due to slush.

“We are presently at 6.5 meters,” Uttarakhand director general of police (DGP) Ashok Kumar 

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On Thursday, the rescue teams have begun a drilling operation to peep into the Tapovan tunnel where nearly 30 people were feared trapped.

Earlier, numerous efforts to dig the trapped people inside the tunnel, could not go far due to slush.

“We are presently at 6.5 meters,” Uttarakhand director general of police (DGP) Ashok Kumar 

“Drilling operation started by rescue teams at 2:00 AM today to peep into a tunnel 12 to 13 meters below,” the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) wrote on Twitter.

They added that the teams through boring operations will try to see whether the slush flushing tunnel below is clear of slush or otherwise to see chances of trapped persons being rescued from there.

Drilling operations started by rescue teams at 0200 AM to peep into the slush flushing tunnel 12 to 13 meters below.

This is being done from the tunnel where rescue teams are presently taking out slush.#UttarakhandGlacierBurst #TapovanTunnel pic.twitter.com/OgIaHD8ILZ

— ITBP (@ITBP_official) February 11, 2021

The rescue operations have entered the fifth day following flash floods in the Chamoli district of the state triggered by a glacier burst on Sunday.

The rescue teams have so recovered 34 bodies and as many as 170 people were missing as of Wednesday night.

Rescuers said that they were making steady progress as the flood waters were receding slowly and the height of the slush in NTPC Limited’s tunnel in Tapovan was shrinking.