We have to face challenge with full courage, courage and patience: CM Dhami amid rescue operation in Uttarkashi tunnel

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], November 15 (ANI): As rescue personnel raced against time to reach the workers trapped inside an under-construction tunnel, a portion of which caved in earlier, heavy auger drilling machines reached Chinyalisaur helipad in Uttarkashi to aid the ongoing rescue operation.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was continuously monitoring the ongoing rescue operation in Silkyara, the CMO stated in an official release.
"Today a big challenge has come before us which we have to face successfully with full courage, courage and patience. We are getting full support from the administration, central agencies and central government in this. The Central Government and the Union Home Minister are continuously monitoring the rescue operation. The Prime Minister himself has taken information about the incident and relief and rescue operations," the CM was quoted as saying in the official release.
Further, according to the release, CM Dhami was taking moment-to-moment updates from Commissioner Garhwal, IG Garhwal and agencies engaged in the ongoing relief and rescue operation in Silkyara and ensuring the well-being of the workers trapped in the tunnel.
"Despite being in Indore, Madhya Pradesh at a program on Wednesday, CM Dhami is in constant touch with Commissioner Garhwal and IG Garhwal and is taking constant updates of the rescue operation being conducted in Silkyara," the CM was quoted as stating further in the official release.
The CM also encouraged the officials and agencies involved in the rescue operation.
Shortly after a portion of the under-construction Silkyara Polgaon road tunnel caved in, CM Dhami held a meeting with senior officials of the government at his residence.
The CM directed officials in the district administration, who are deployed at the spot, to maintain constant coordination with the agencies involved in the rescue efforts and ensure that relief is mobilised at the earliest, should the need arise.
On the instructions of the chief minister, the experts in the committee formed by the government under the chairmanship of the director, Uttarakhand Landslide Mitigation and Management Centre, to study and investigate the cause of the tunnel collapse, inspected the site and started the investigation.
Even as relief and rescue operations continue on a war footing, fresh debris falling from the roof of the tunnel is hampering the rescue work, sources said.
Rescuers prepared a platform for the auger drilling machine to insert large-diameter steel pipes into the debris-filled tunnel. The aim is to create a passage through which labourers could be brought out safely.
However, visuals from the site showed rescue officials using JCBs to remove the fresh debris and working to mount the auger machine on the platform again to push the steel pipes into the tunnel. (ANI)