Joshimath: Rescue teams on Saturday began widening a hole drilled into an approach tunnel on the way to the possible location of over 30 people trapped inside a sludge-choked tunnel of the NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project after a flash flood ravaged the area on Sunday.
“We are working under a three-pronged strategy to reach to those trapped in the tunnel. The hole we drilled yesterday is being widened to one feet so as to reach a camera and a pipe inside the silt flushing tunnel where the trapped are said to be located, General Manager of the NTPC project, R P Ahirwal, told PTI.
A hole with a diameter of one feet will help send in a camera to ascertain their location and a pipe to flush out accumulated water from the tunnel, Ahirwal said.
The other two parts of the strategy are clearing the desilting basin of the NTPC barrage through which muck is constantly flowing into the tunnels and restoring the flow of the Dhauliganga to the right which has tilted to the…