Uttarakhand glacier burst: Drilling operation inside Tapovan tunnel begins

The rescue teams on Thursday have started a drilling operation to peep into the 'slush flushing tunnel' 12 to 13 meters below the tunnel where these teams are presently taking out slush from the Tapovan tunnel in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) informed.

In a series of tweets, ITBP informed that the drilling operations started at 2 am today.

"Drilling operations started by rescue teams at 0200 AM to peep into the slush flushing tunnel 12 to 13 meters below. This is being done from the tunnel where rescue teams are presently taking out slush," ITBP tweeted.

"The teams through boring operation will try to see whether the slush flushing tunnel below is clear of slush or otherwise to see chances of trapped persons being rescued from there," another tweet from ITBP read.

"Rescue teams have started the drilling operation to peep into the tunnel 12 meters below..we are presently at 6.5," informed Deputy General of Police (DGP) Uttarakhand Ashok Kumar.

Around 30 people are feared trapped inside.

As many as 32 bodies have been recovered so far from different areas hit by the glacier burst in Chamoli district, while 206 people are missing inside the Tapovan tunnel.

A joint team of ITBP, NDRF, SDRF and sister agencies entered the tunnel yesterday.

A glacier broke in the Tapovan-Reni area of Chamoli District of Uttarakhand on Sunday, which led to massive flooding in Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers and damaged houses and the nearby Rishiganga power project.

( With inputs from ANI )