Forty-one construction workers trapped for 11 days will have to wait another day before an attempt to rescue them from a collapsed tunnel in northern India can continue.
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That’s because the drilling machine used in the rescue hit a lattice steel girder arch that took six hours to remove, said Bhaskar Khulbe, a tunnel project official, to The Associated Press.
The machine is expected to be fixed by Friday, when the rescue attempt can continue to free the workers who have been trapped for nearly two weeks. On Nov. 12, a landslide caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometre tunnel they were building to collapse about 200 metres from the entrance.
People stand near the entrance to the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in mountainous Uttarakhand state, India, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. Rescuers drilled deeper into the rubble of a collapsed road tunnel in northern India on Friday to fix wide pipes for 40 workers trapped underground for a sixth day to crawl to their freedom. (AP Photo).
This photo provided by Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) shows rescuers inside a collapsed road tunnel where more than 30 workers were trapped by a landslide in northern in Uttarakhand state, India, Sunday, Nov.12, 2023. ( SDRF via AP).
Rescue workers watch from a distance as earth movers dig through rubble of a collapsed tunnel in Ramban district, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, May 20, 2022. An official in Indian-controlled Kashmir said Friday that 10 workers were trapped after part of a road tunnel collapsed in the Himalayan region. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin).
As of Thursday evening, the drilling had made it through nearly 46 metres but still had 12 metres more to go to create a passageway, according to Kirti Panwar, a state government spokesperson at the accident site.
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The rescue plan is to insert and weld together pipes that can be used as a route out of the tunnel.
Members of the National Disaster Response Force “will then crawl inside and bring out the workers one by one, most likely on stretchers which have been fitted with wheels,” Panwar said.
The drilling machine has faced problems before, forcing a stop to digging last week before resuming Wednesday.
Authorities have been supplying the trapped workers with hot meals of rice and lentils through a six-inch pipe since earlier this week after days of them surviving off dry food sent through a narrower pipe. Oxygen is being supplied to them through a separate pipe.
People wait by the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed trapping 41 workers in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. The workers have been trapped for over a week, as rescuers work on an alternate plan of digging toward them vertically. (AP Photo).
People sit near the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed trapping 41 workers in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. The workers have been trapped for over a week, as rescuers work on an alternate plan of digging toward them vertically. (AP Photo).
Peoeple watch rescue operations at the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed trapping 41 workers in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. The workers have been trapped for over a week, as rescuers work on an alternate plan of digging toward them vertically. (AP Photo).
Uttarakhand is dotted with Hindu temples, and highway and building construction has been constant to accommodate the influx of pilgrims and tourists. The tunnel is part of the Chardham all-weather road, a flagship federal project connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites.
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About 200 disaster relief personnel have been at the site using drilling equipment and excavators in the rescue operation.
The rescuers will need to dig 103 meters (338 feet) to reach the trapped workers — nearly double than if they carried on digging from the front.
— with files from the Associated Press, Reuters and Global’s Uday Rana.