Sujith rescue ops latest:Parallel borewell digging on to reach toddler

 

Four days - more than 65 hours have passed as rescue operations continue in Trichy on Monday to recover 2-year old Sujith Wilson out of a borewell, at a depth of 88 feet. To complicate the rescue mission the rigger machines have broken and underground solid rock structures. The rescue initially began on Friday evening, 30 minutes after Sujith fell into the well.

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Rescue ops underway to save Sujith

The government is taking all the steps to rescue the boy. Various agencies and individuals with their own inventories took a chance to rescue Sujith, but couldn't make it happen as he slipped from 26 feet to 70 feet on day 2. This happened due to vibration produced by earth-movers and the slippery walls of the empty bore well.  After trying out various methods to gain access to the child, officials and the rescue team decided to dig a parallel path, further down to rescue the child.

Rig machines were brought to the spot and the digging started on Sunday morning. But the blades of the machine couldn't penetrate the solid rock structures which are at the depth of 20 feet. Soon the blades of the rigging machine were damaged due to the hard, solid rock sediments, slowing down the process. They reached only 20 feet till this morning.

Here are photos from the site:

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Rescue plan to access the child

Authorities have installed a 1,200 horsepower borewell drilling machine to break the rocks into pieces, which will help the drilling machine to create a path measuring 1 meter in diameter, thus allowing fire and rescue teams to get into the well. According to the rescue plan, the fire and rescue team aim to reach the bottom of 98 feet and will then dig a horizontal path to reach the actual bore well where the toddler is stuck.

"We are not going to call off the mission until we rescue Sujith. The work will continue despite rain," said Commissioner for revenue and administration Radhakrishnan - the top official in charge of the whole mission. Radhakrishnan also said "It will take around 12 hours to reach the destined level in the current rate and its subject to change according to the rock structures," while he addressed the media today morning from the spot. Rain showers have been on and off at Nadukattupatti village where the rescue is going on, making the process even more harder.

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READ | TN: Operations underway to rescue toddler Sujith Wilson from borewell