Ambulances were standing by Thursday morning near the road tunnel where 41 Indian workers have been stuck for nearly two weeks, according to AFP journalists.
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Bulldozers and excavators have been working to break through the rubble since November 12, the day the tunnel under construction in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed. They intend to drive a large steel pipe out of earth and stone at least 57 meters long, separating the walled-in workers from the outdoors.
On Wednesday there was a sudden and rapid breakthrough before slowing to just 12 meters from the target.
At the entrance to the Silkyara tunnel on Thursday morning, an AFP journalist noted that excitement was high and ambulances and a field hospital were ready to care for the miners.
The road has been reopened to allow the drilling machine to dig the final section, Praveen Yadav, one of the rescue team members, told reporters on Thursday morning.
“We have paved the way and cleared it,” he said, adding that the exercise would resume operations to achieve the long-awaited final breakthrough that rescuers hope for in the coming hours.
On several occasions, the government has expressed caution, reminding that progress “is subject to change due to technical problems, difficult Himalayan terrain and unforeseen events.”
Visual contact was established for the first time on Tuesday thanks to an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers through the pipe through which air, food and water is regularly supplied to the trapped workers.
Their families gathered in front of the site where a Hindu shrine was built. A Hindu priest prayed for the men who were still waiting for help.
“The day they come out of the tunnel will be the biggest and happiest day for us,” said Chanchal Singh Bisht, 35, whose cousin Pushkar Singh Ary, 24, is trapped inside.
From the start, rescue efforts were complicated and slowed by falling debris and repeated failures of drilling machines critical to rescuing workers.