The ongoing drilling work to reach the 40 trapped workers inside the Silkyara tunnel was halted on Saturday after the rescuers bored 25 metres into the rubble, a top official said.
Uttarakhand Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi reached the disaster control room at the secretariat on Friday to assess the ongoing rescue operation at the Silkyara tunnel collapse site.
Meanwhile, protests broke on Wednesday outside the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi as workers protested over the delay in rescuing 40 labourers who have been trapped inside after a portion of the under-construction tunnel collapsed on Sunday.
A portion of an under-construction tunnel between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway collapsed in the early hours of November 12, entrapping 40 labourers.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday reviewed the status of relief and rescue operations with senior officials at his residence to save 40 people trapped in Silkyara tunnel located on Uttarkashi-Yamnotri road.
According to authorities, a platform is being prepared for an auger machine to drill horizontally and insert large diameter MS pipes in between the debris so that the trapped workers can be taken out throught the metal pipes.
The SDRF team, which is leading the rescue operations at an under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi, a portion of which collapsed earlier on Sunday, started removing debris from the scene.