3 workers trapped inside tunnel

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
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Three workers of Himalayan Construction Company executing the Kiratpur-Ner Chowk four-laning project were trapped when a portion of Tunnel No. 4 at Tihra, 13 km from Bilaspur, caved in last night. The rescue work continued till late in the evening today but none of the trapped persons could be rescued.
Only the three workers —foreman and overseer Satish Tomar of Paonta Sahib, Mani Ram and Hirday Ram from Mandi —were reportedly present when the mishap occurred around 9 pm during the evening shift; otherwise, the number of people trapped would have been much more.
The workers are learnt to have been discussing the next day’s drill when a landslide, triggered by sinking portion, blocked a 100-metre patch starting from the tunnel’s entrance. At least 260-metre length of the 1.4-km-long tunnel has been constructed so far.
The district administration and police officials were at the spot to oversee the rescue operation, said S. Kaul, Project Director, National Highways Authority of India. He said help had also been sought from the National Disaster Response Force.
Efforts were being made to pump oxygen into the tunnel, having a 12-metre diameter, and insert a 1.5-metre diameter pipe to prepare an escape route for the trapped workers, he said.
Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Balbir Thakur, who is monitoring the rescue operation, said the project authorities informed that only three workers were trapped inside the tunnel. He said heavy machinery had been deployed to remove the debris.
 

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Labourers still trapped in tunnel

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Continuous flow of debris has made it difficult for officials to rescue three labourers trapped inside a tunnel for the past 48 hours.
A portion of the tunnel number 4 caved in at 8.30 pm on September 12. The workers were carrying out work for the four-laning of Kiratpur-Ner Chowk.
There is no information about the safety and well-being of the workers. An oxygen pipe has been put in place to pump in oxygen. The site of mishap is about 13 km from the district headquarters of Bilaspur.
The workers’ families were taken inside to show them the efforts being made by the rescue team.
Even though the Himalayan Construction Company (HCC), executing the four-laning project, claimed that only three workers were trapped inside, sources said the possibility of anyone else being trapped inside could not be ruled out.
The HCC has engaged labourers to clear debris and make access to the trapped labourers, but due to continuous flow of muck, the task is becoming difficult. A team of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) also visited the site to take stock of the situation today. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rajesh Dharmani and Bilaspur MLA Bambar Thakur along with the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police were present at the site.
 

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Turnbull to announce new cabinet on Monday

Australia's new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday said that he was keen to see more women on the frontbench of his government and hoped that the new cabinet will be sworn in on Monday.
Turnbull, 60, did not give any of the frontbench changes he is planning to make, but did confirm he wants more female representatives to be promoted.
"There is no greater enthusiast than me for seeing more women in positions of power and influence in parliament, in ministries right across the country," he said.
"I can assure you that. I am very committed to that, but I am not going to say any more about the new ministerial arrangements," he said.
According latest media reports, there were speculation that the Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton resigned after sending a text message to Turnbull while the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott reportedly sent his resignation via fax.
The Prime Minister, however, was quoted as saying that he was yet to receive an indication from Abbott about whether or not he would quit politics altogether.
In the hastily-arranged late night party leadership ballot on Monday, 57-year-old Abbott received 44 votes against Turnbull's 54.
Turnbull was backed by influential foreign minister Julie Bishop, who the party re-elected as deputy leader.
Turnbull's victory is reminiscent of the coup former prime minister Julia Gillard staged against Kevin Rudd in 2010 and makes the former communications minister Australia's fifth prime minister in eight years.
 

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
After 96 hrs, contact established with two trapped workers

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Two of the three workers trapped inside the tunnel on the Kiratpur-Nerchowk National Highway for 96 hours are safe as contact has finally been established with them through cameras and microphones inserted inside the 50 mts vertical tunnel.
The rescue team led by BRO personnel succeeded in establishing the contact with the two workers Mani Ram and Satish, who are trapped inside the tunnel since September 12.
Officials said the workers, who are safe inside the tunnel, seem to be traumatized but now with contact being established with them they have been assured that they will be brought out soon.
A three-feet horizontal tunnel is being created inside the original tunnel.However, no clue has yet emerged about the whereabouts of the third worker.
The happiness of the relatives of the two workers, who were found safe, knew no bounds.
Contact could be established with the workers as a result of a relentless 96-hour rescue operation undertaken by BRO experts. They succeeded in boring 50 meters of vertical tunnel to make contact with the trapped workers.
Three workers were trapped inside the tunnel number four of Kiratpur -Nerchowk National Highway at around 8:30 p.m. on September 12.
Though the BRO was unsuccessful in its first attempt to lower a camera with microphone and light due to some obstacle at the bottom of the vertical tunnel, contact was finally established.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that work on the horizontal tunnel had been discontinued for some time as some hard rock at 12 meters created an obstacle for the workers. It was learnt that the construction company had sought the services more experts to speed up the rescue operation to make horizontal access to the trapped workers.
Manasi Sahay Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, Bilaspur, said that top vertical insertion of 50 meters had been drilled and the work on the horizontal insertion was also underway. “It is only a matter of few hours before we can bring out the two workers who are safe”, she said.
 
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