U’khand: No breakthrough yet in rescue operation inside tunnel

By Shishir Prashant Dehradun, Feb 13 : Rescuers on Saturday were busy widening a hole in a tunnel to find 25 to 35 trapped people in the disaster-hit Tapovan project area of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand.
Top government and police officials said there was no big breakthrough yet in the rescue work which entered the seventh day. “We have made a hole but we can’t say it is a big breakthrough unless we find something concrete,” said a top police official.
But officials claimed the rescue work had been speeded up with the installation of some additional machines like excavators.
Presently, the rescuers are working on two strategies – drilling a hole vertically downward and also digging and excavating debris and sludge inside the tunnel.
Meanwhile, two more bodies were recovered on Friday taking the death toll to 38. Nearly 200 people went missing after the Sunday morning deluge.
“The rescue work inside the tunnel is on in full swing,” said Navneet Bhullar, commandant of the SDRF, who is camping at Tapovan site. However, there is still no contact with the trapped people inside.