Abhitesh
Rescuers in Uttarakhand’s Silkaya tunnel ran into another problem, and on Friday evening, the drilling had to stop because of a technical issue. The experts said that the boring work would start soon, so the auger machine was brought out to look at the latest technical problem. The timer kept going because the 41 building workers have been here longer and longer since Thursday. Even though the process was almost done on Friday, the workers still could not be taken out. Rescuers have been working since Thursday night to fix the drill machine after it hit something metal. It was fixed on Friday, but there was still a problem.
Why is the US-made auger machine developing so many glitches?
The auger machine is drilling through debris to insert pipes through which the trapped men will be rescued. Inside the debris, there are metal obstacles stopping the machine. The rescuers, on Thursday night, used gas cutters to remove a similar roadblock. Another obstacle came when it was found that one of the pipes got bent. The auger machine was brought out. Owing to all this pressure, the platform in which the auger machine was set developed a crack. Quick dry cement was used to mend the platform.
The tunnel had no emergency exit and was built through a geological fault. Report
Reuters said that the tunnel that collapsed didn’t have an emergency exit and was being made through a fault in the ground. The study said that a geological fault called a “shear zone” may have caused the building to fall down.
Himalayan geology is not predictable: Experts
When asked why it took 12 days and the job is still not done, experts said it’s because Himalayan rock is hard to predict and not much is known about it.
