The NDRF team reaches tunnel boring machine and struggles against water, slush, and debris in search of missing workers.
“Srinivaaaas,” the voice rang out again, only to be met with nothing more than silence from the other side of the rock-and-soil blocked tunnel.
“Tiwari,” the voice called again, and the only sound heard on a rescuer’s video was that of rushing of water continued to gurgle and bubble.
Strobe lights from powerful torches tried to illuminate even the slightest hint which the rescuers could use. Nothing.
“Sir, kuch sunai deraha hai (Sir, I think I can hear something),” one NDRF member can be heard saying in a video shared by irrigation department officials. Immediately the first voice again called the names. Again, only silence.
The team of NDRF personnel, the first to reach the tunnel boring machine, began calling out the names of workers believed blocked on the other side, in the early hours of Sunday.
They began discussing the cement concrete rings lining the tunnel, to figure out to what distance they were intact.
According to a deputy commander of NDRF, Sukhendu, though they tried calling the names of the trapped workers multiple times, “we could not hear back anything.”
He said the NDRF team used the locomotive used by the workers to reach the TBM which could go for 11 km. “After that, we had to walk on the conveyor belt for 2.5 km. After this, there are 200 metres full of debris. Until this is removed, we will not be able to make out the location of the missing persons, and how to get them out,” he said.
He said the last 2 km had a lot of water and slush which will have to be removed first before the debris removal can begin, after which the victims can be brought out. “All of this will take time, but we are working on it,” he added.
