Shankar Prasad Nautiyal/Portal
Members of rescue teams stand at the entrance of a tunnel trapping road workers after part of the tunnel collapsed in Uttarakhand, India.
New Delhi CNN –
Indian authorities are looking for new ways to rescue 40 construction workers who have been stuck underground for more than a week.
Workers were left stranded when a highway tunnel they were building partially collapsed in the northern state of Uttarakhand last Sunday.
Although they were provided with food and water, a doctor said some of the men became sick and had vomiting and headaches.
State authorities have approved the purchase of equipment and more workers to implement options such as building escape tunnels on the left and right sides of the tunnel, officials said.
Vertical drilling from the upper hill, which is already being implemented, remains a consideration.
Rescue teams had been drilling non-stop to reach the stranded workers since they acquired a powerful drill on Thursday. But given the delicate mountain terrain, there were concerns that more debris could fall, further complicating rescue efforts.
“We have opted for a pause-and-go approach to maintain balance,” Anshu Manish Khalkho, director of state-run highway management company National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), said on Friday.
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On November 17, rescuers had drilled around a third of the way to the trapped workers.
Khalkho told reporters that rescuers had so far drilled about 25 meters (82 feet) into the collapsed Uttarkashi tunnel using the powerful drill – that’s about a third of the way to the trapped workers.
The rescuers have 60 meters of rubble between them and the trapped men. According to Khalkho, the pipes intended for the rescue mission were successfully inserted into about 25 meters (82 feet) of the debris. However, there is still a way to go before reaching 40 workers.
Pipes would be inserted into the freshly drilled hole and welded together, Khalkho explained.
These interconnected pipes will provide the stranded men with an escape route and allow them to get beyond the collapsed section of the tunnel.
“It may look simple from the outside, but on the ground we have to consider the impact of drilling vibrations on the fragile terrain,” Khalkho told reporters when asked about the duration of the rescue mission, which entered its seventh day on Saturday.
He also confirmed that a replacement drill would be flown from the city of Indore in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh to support rescue operations. Portal reported on Saturday that the original drill broke on Friday and needed to be replaced.
Separately, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also assured the press that the rescue work is going on with the “engineers and experts of NHIDCL working tirelessly” and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “reviewing the situation”.
In an update on Sunday, Dhami told Indian news agency ANI that “saving all lives is our top priority… the state government is ready to provide necessary assistance to all authorities,” adding that expert teams are working on all available options Save the men.
Dhami later visited the site to “conduct an on-site inspection and review the ongoing relief and rescue work,” his post on X on Sunday said. He was accompanied by Indian Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
A special team from the Prime Minister’s Office arrived at the tunnel collapse site on Saturday to check the situation.
The tunnel is part of Modi’s ambitious Himalayan Char Dham Highway project, a multi-million dollar infrastructure plan to improve connectivity in the state of Uttarakhand and better access to key pilgrimage sites.