Uttarkashi rescue operation: Process of removing auger machine is underway

Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) [India], November 26 (ANI): As rescue personnel raced against time to reach the workers trapped inside an under-construction tunnel, the process of removing the Auger machine from the debris is underway, and the process is being done by cutting through a plasma cutter machine.
Meanwhile, only 10.9 metres of auger machines are left in the pipeline.
Micro-tunnelling expert Chris Cooper on Sunday said the rescuers were removing smaller as well as bigger pieces of debris from the auger machine stuck inside the tunnel.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, Cooper also shed light on the efficiency of the plasma-cutting machine flown in from Hyderabad in the early hours of Sunday to put some speed into the ongoing process of removing the debris that separates the rescuers from the trapped workers.
"We are still in the process of removing the Auger (driller) from inside the tunnel. The plasma machine will help us in this task as it will cut through the steel (blades stuck in the rubble) faster. The plasma machine cuts the steel much faster," Cooper told ANI.
On how much time it will take to remove the auger blades and the machine from the rubble, the micro-tunneling expert said, "We do not know. It depends. Sometimes we get smaller pieces out. Sometimes we get bigger pieces out."
The plasma cutter, specially requisitioned and flown in from Hyderabad to aid the process of removing the heavy-duty drilling machine and the stuck auger blades from inside the tunnel, was put to work on Sunday morning.
After a portion of the tunnel caved in on November 12, the debris falling in the 60-metre stretch on the Silkyara side of the tunnel trapped 41 labourers inside the under-construction structure. (ANI)