Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue: Planning has begun; vertical drilling breakthrough would be difficult; workers' health is continuously watched

 Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue: Planning has begun; vertical drilling breakthrough would be difficult; workers' health is continuously watched

It will be difficult to break through the evacuation tunnel being constructed by vertical drilling from Silkyara tunnel's top slope. Because it will be difficult to pierce the tunnel's concrete ceiling at the point when the drilling is required to traverse the tunnel 86–88 meters below the surface. Employee well-being is continuously observed.

Dehradun. It will be difficult to break through the evacuation tunnel being constructed by vertical drilling from Silkyara tunnel's top slope. Because the concrete tunnel ceiling will also need to be broken through during drilling when the tunnel crosses 86 to 88 meters below the surface. It is also seen as a challenge by Mahmood Ahmed, managing director of the building company National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).

Still, he said, preparations are underway to surmount this obstacle. Mahmood Ahmed, the managing director of NHIDCL, said on Monday that the vertical evacuation tunnel would open in the main tunnel's vacant section at a distance of 300 to 305 meters.

We will keep an eye on the tunnel's condition.

The state of the iron framework above the tunnel's ceiling at the point of breakthrough is visible. At the right end of the tunnel, however, attempts are being made to create the breakthrough inside a five to six meter radius. This segment should have a lower iron barrier than anticipated. The authorities of Navyug, the business that constructs tunnels, had provided information in this respect to Jaswant Kapoor, manager of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL), even throughout the process of choosing the location for drilling on the hill.

Not only was water released during the vertical drilling process, but hard rocks were also discovered.

In addition to hard rocks, water has also been discovered during the vertical drilling of SJVNL's drainage tunnel, according to Mahmood Ahmed, Managing Director of NHIDCL. This was previously suspected, and preparations for its removal were made.

Mahmood claims that experimental drilling was carried out in order to go on with the escape tube in a scheduled way. Only a vertical medium up to 75 meters in diameter (8 inches) was used for this drilling. Hard rocks were discovered and water also emerged from these. Any odd events that arose during the trial drilling were examined scientifically, and a plan for digging the escape tunnel was developed in light of the findings. The rescue organizations are prepared to use rescue robots in order to continuously assess the environment and worker health.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the foundation of robotic systems technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology serves as the foundation for this robotics system that combines audio-visual and sensor capabilities. This allows for the round-the-clock monitoring of the workers' health as well as information gathering on the tunnel's air quality.

Roboz Dottin Tech, a robotics company located in Lucknow, is the developer of this system. It can provide high-speed internet access even in locations where mobile networks are inoperable. Milind Raj, the director of the company that prepared it, Roboz Dottin Tech, says that the workers' lifeline pipe will be the entry point for this technology into the tunnel. Workers within the tunnel may transmit voice or video out with ease because to this technology.

AI monitors health as well.

The robots system's AI (Artificial Intelligence) can identify which of the 41 trapped workers in the tunnel looks to be in poor condition. AI technology is able to perform all of this based on facial expressions, speech patterns, eye blinking, and other bodily actions. The director of Roboz Dottin Tech, Milind Raj, claims that the sensors built into the rescue robot can also detect the air quality within the tunnel. If the carbon dioxide or methane levels within the tunnel start to rise abnormally, the sensors will sound an alert.

The 'boatmen' will be the rat miners.

'Boatmen' might be the term used to describe the group of rat miners that sought for manual drilling after machine drilling encountered a barrier in the rescue attempt to safely extract 41 personnel who were trapped in the Silkyara tunnel. The six-person rat miners' team, which traveled from Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh, to Silkyara, has given the rescue organizations involved in the mission fresh life. This crew began work on Monday morning by entering the evacuation tunnel and cutting and removing the auger equipment that was trapped there.

After that, the crew began digging by hand, and by late evening, they had excavated a further meter of an escape tunnel. This crew can construct an escape tunnel measuring one meter in only two hours. Team member Prasadi Lodhi said that although this activity is tough for them, it is not dangerous. The crew is operating without any issues inside the 800-mm-diameter pipe that was installed for the evacuation tube. He said that the team members had excavated a tunnel with a length of between 1.5 and 2 kilometers while seated within a 600 mm diameter.