Indian rescuers hope bigger drill will reach 40 trapped in tunnel
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The workers are safe and rescuers have been able to communicate with them and send them food, water and oxygen.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LUCKNOW, India – Rescuers in mountains in north India trying to reach 40 road workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel
The workers are safe, and rescuers have been able to communicate with them and send them food, water and oxygen through a pipe since the collapse early on Sunday, but huge boulders have stymied efforts to dig an escape route for them
A high-powered auger drilling machine has been airlifted from New Delhi, about 400km to the south, in the hope of drilling through the debris trapping the men.
“The new machine has reached the nearest helipad. It is being assembled, and will be sent to the site soon,” said Mr Ashok Kumar, head of police in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand.
The men were working on the Char Dham highway, one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. It aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites in the mountains through 890km of roads at a cost of US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion).
There were up to 60 men on the night shift in the 4.5km tunnel when it collapsed before dawn.
Men near the end of the tunnel managed to get out in time, but the 40 trapped men were working deeper inside.
The ANI news agency showed footage on Wednesday of about a dozen angry workers outside the tunnel calling for their colleagues to be rescued quickly.
India’s Himalayas are prone to landslides, floods and earthquakes. Geologists, residents and officials have blamed rapid construction for causing subsidence on slopes.
The road project has faced criticism from environmental experts, and some work had been halted after hundreds of houses were damaged by subsidence.
Work on the tunnel began in 2018 and was initially meant to be finished by July 2022.
It was due to be completed in May 2024, the government said in a statement before the collapse. REUTERS
