[1/4]Members of rescue teams stand at the entrance of a tunnel where 40 road workers are trapped after part of the tunnel collapsed, in Uttarkashi in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, November 16, 2023. Portal/Shankar Prasad Nautiyal Acquire License Rights
UTTARKASHI, India, Nov 16 (Portal) – Rescue workers continued efforts on Thursday to reach 40 men who have been trapped in a collapsed highway tunnel in India for five days. Progress was slow as they began drilling through rock and earth debris.
Authorities expressed confidence that an advanced drilling machine flown in from New Delhi would speed rescue at the site in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
The plan is to drill and make room for a pipe that the trapped men can use to get to safety.
Drilling penetrated about three meters (10 feet) of debris on Thursday morning, officials said, adding that a total distance of about 60 meters had to be covered.
The machine can drill through about 2 to 2.5 meters of rock per hour, said Ranjit Sinha, the state’s top disaster management officer.
Two of the trapped construction workers were treated for nausea and headaches while trapped in a small room behind the rubble for a fifth day, officials said.
“There is electricity, water and we send food. The new machine, which is more powerful and faster, will be deployed,” Federal Deputy Minister for Road Transport and Highways and retired Army Chief VK Singh told reporters at the spot.
“Our priority is to save them all. The morale of the people trapped inside is high. We are very optimistic about getting them out,” he said.
Singh said Indian authorities involved in the rescue effort consulted experts in Austria, Norway and Thailand, but did not elaborate.
Asked about local media reports that India had consulted Thai experts involved in rescuing 12 boys trapped in a cave complex in 2018, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said: “Technical experts were also consulted have dealt with such situations abroad.”
Ambitious project
The 4.5 km long tunnel is part of the Char Dham Highway, one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The $1.5 billion project aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites via 890 km (550 miles) of roads.
Since the tunnel collapsed, the trapped men have been supplied with food, water and oxygen via a pipe and have been in contact with rescuers via walkie-talkies.
“Two of them, who complained of nausea and mild headache, were given medicines through the line and are doing well now,” said Arpan Yaduvanshi, a local police officer.
Local media reported that a temporary six-bed hospital had been set up near the tunnel to ensure medical care for the men after they were rescued.
Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel to collapse, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods. The highway project has been criticized by environmental experts and some work was halted in January after hundreds of homes along the route were damaged by subsidence.
The federal government has said it used environmentally friendly techniques in the design to make geologically unstable routes safer.
Reporting by Saurabh Sharma, Writing by YP Rajesh and Tanvi Mehta
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