This is an archive article published on February 13, 2021

Hole drilled in Tapovan tunnel for possible location of trapped men

So far, 38 bodies have been recovered from the affected areas while 166 people are still missing. As many as 25-35 people are believed to be trapped inside the Tapovan tunnel.

Uttarakhand disaster, Tapovan tunnel, Uttarakhand rescue work, Uttarakhand flash floods, Uttarakhand glacier blast, NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project, Uttarakhand rescue operation, india news, indian express

Rescue operations on at the Tapovan hydel project in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand. (Express file photo by Gajendra Yadav)

By: PTI

2 min readTapovanFeb 13, 2021 01:02 PM IST First published on: Feb 13, 2021 at 12:39 PM IST

Security personnel drilled a hole on their way to a possible location of over 30 people trapped inside the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel, making a headway at last in the prolonged rescue efforts.

However, efforts were afoot, on Saturday, to widen the hole so that a camera could be inserted into the tunnel to get a clue of the trapped men, officials said.

“Drilling of a 12-metre-long hole of 75 mm diameter in the intake adit tunnel to its inside has been successful,” National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Tapovan, General Manager, R P Ahirwal said.

“This is a good sign as there is no water or slush pressure observed in the silt-flushing tunnel,” he said in a release.