“We have successfully drilled a 75mm-wide and 12m-long hole to the silt flushing tunnel (which carries sediment and debris out of the dam’s tunnel) on Friday evening… The good sign is that there is no water or slush pressure observed in the tunnel now,” ITBP spokesperson Vivek Pandey told TOI. “However, we have not been able to insert a camera into the silt flushing tunnel due to technical difficulties.”
The rescue team with NDRF, Army and ITBP personnel will now work through the night to widen this opening. “A hole with a larger diameter will be carved. A drilling machine has been deployed to do that. The aim is to get that bore hole to a 250-300mm diameter,” Pandey said.