© Reuters. Heavy equipment seen as rescue operations are in progress after employees are trapped in a collapse of an under-construction tunnel, in Uttarkashi, within the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, November 26, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
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By Saurabh Sharma
SILKYARA, India (Reuters) – Indian rescuers started drilling vertically on Sunday from the highest of a mountain underneath which 41 employees grew to become trapped two weeks in the past whereas engaged on a freeway tunnel within the Himalayas, authorities officers stated.
The lads, development employees from a few of India’s poorest states, have been caught within the 4.5-km (3-mile) tunnel being inbuilt Uttarakhand state because it caved in early on Nov. 12. Authorities have stated they’re secure, with entry to mild, oxygen, meals, water and medicines.
However rescuing them will take for much longer than beforehand hoped as rescuers have switched to handbook drilling following injury to the drilling machine, officers stated on Saturday.
Rescuers had hoped to complete the drilling late on Thursday however needed to droop operation after the platform on which the machine was positioned was broken.
Work resumed on Friday night solely to be suspended quickly afterwards because the machine bumped into a brand new impediment, officers stated, with out elaborating.
Vertical drilling began on Sunday and it’ll take about 100 hours, the officers stated.
Initially, the rescue plan concerned pushing a pipe huge sufficient to drag the trapped males out on wheeled stretchers.
The lads have been getting cooked meals through a lifeline pipe that was pushed by means of to make sure regular provides of important items.
Greater than a dozen docs, together with psychiatrists, are on the web site, speaking to the lads and monitoring their well being. The truth that the tunnel is closed by the particles is conserving the lads heat.
They’ve been advised to do mild yoga workout routines, stroll round within the two km of tunnel house they’ve been confined to, and maintain speaking to one another.
Deepak Patil, one of many officers in command of the rescue mission, advised Reuters authorities had despatched in two cellphones and reminiscence playing cards with Hindi movies and digital video games.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, a spokeswoman for one in all India’s opposition events, on Sunday requested for an investigation into the accident and requested the federal government to make sure the protection of the lads.
A member of a panel of consultants investigating the catastrophe stated on Friday the tunnel doesn’t have an emergency exit and was constructed by means of a geological fault.
