India:
Efforts to rescue 41 workers trapped for two weeks in a highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas will slow further as rescuers consider manually drilling down to the last 10 meters of debris, an official said Saturday.
According to an official statement, the heavy drill machine being used to break up about 60 meters of debris was damaged on Friday and needs to be completely pulled out.
The men, construction workers from some of India’s poorest states, have been trapped after a 4.5-kilometre (3-mile) tunnel being built in Uttarakhand state collapsed early on November 12. Officials have said they are safe, with access to light, oxygen, food, water and medicines.
A senior official involved in the rescue operation told Reuters that since the damaged machine could not be used, they planned to manually cut through the remaining debris.
The drill machine, called an auger, was damaged as it was being pulled out of about 47 meters of pipe that had been inserted to rescue trapped workers after it hit an obstacle on Friday.
Reading Indian rescue workers hope to reach 41 people trapped in the tunnel on Thursday
The machine broke at a joint and some parts are being cut so that it can be removed from the tunnel. Once it is removed, drilling will be done manually, the official said.
Sunita Hembrom, who spoke to her trapped brother-in-law Birendra Kishku, 39, said “everyone trapped inside is very worried”.
“My brother-in-law told me that he has not eaten since yesterday. We are very worried,” he said.
Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel collapse, but the area is at risk of landslides, earthquakes and flooding.
The tunnel had no emergency exits and was created by a geological fault, a member of a panel of experts investigating the disaster said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Are.
The rescue plan involved opening a pipe wide enough to allow the trapped people to be evacuated on wheeled stretchers. A video clip provided by officials showed rescue workers practicing evacuation by going into the pipe and pulling them out on stretchers.
A second plan to drill vertically from the top of the hill is also being worked on and drilling machines are being assembled, the statement said.
Read also First pictures of Indian tunnel show workers trapped for nine days
The men have been receiving cooked food since a large lifeline was sent through the pipe earlier this week and the statement said they had been sent 200 rotis or Indian round flat bread, dal and vegetable curry.
More than a dozen doctors, including psychiatrists, are at the scene, talking to the men and monitoring their health.
They have been advised to do light yoga exercises, walk around the 2 km space to which they are confined and keep talking to each other. Psychiatrist Rohit Gondwal said they are also considering sending cards and board games.
The demolished tunnel is on the Char Dham pilgrimage route, one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
It aims to connect four major Hindu pilgrimage sites with an 890 km (550 mi) two-lane road at a cost of $1.5 billion.
