Uttarakhand avalanche: ITBP starts drilling to rescue survivors trapped in Tapovan tunnel

In an attempt to search for and rescue the 25 to 35 people trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand, following the glacier burst at Chamoli, the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) personnel started drilling to peep into the tunnel, ANI reported. The drilling operation started at 2 am on Thursday. Earlier, a machine was used to take out slush from the tunnel, which is located in Tapovan, ITBP said on Twitter. 

Also read: Uttarakhand avalanche: Families of missing workers protest at Rishiganga power project site

News agency ANI shared a clip of the drilling operation.

The boring operation was carried out to see if the tunnel was “clear of slush or otherwise to see chances of trapped persons being rescued from there,” the ITBP said.

The tunnel in which the search and rescue operation is underway is one of the two tunnels of the NTPC. 12 people were rescued from one tunnel, while 25 to 35 people were trapped in the other, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. 

Also read: Uttarakhand glacier breach: Drones, laser imagers deployed to search for survivors in tunnel

32 people were killed in the deluge that followed after a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off at Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli on Sunday. Hundreds went missing, several villages were destroyed and two projects – NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and the Rishi Ganga Hydel Project, were left massively damaged.