Indian Workers Await Rescue in Collapsed Site, Rescuers Deploy Urgent Operation

AFP/APP

Dehradun, India: Rescuers drilled about one-third of the way into the debris of a collapsed highway tunnel in India by Friday morning to reach 40 workers trapped inside for five days, officials said.

Indian rescuers said on Thursday that a powerful new drilling machine has been deployed.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami confirmed Thursday afternoon that drilling has started, saying that rescuers are working on a “war footing”.

Evacuating the personnel trapped in the tunnel is the top priority. We are trying to get all the workers out safely as soon as possible, stated Pushkar Singh.

Food, water, and medicine have also been sent to the trapped workers via a six-inch-wide (15-centimetre) pipe, as well as oxygen.

Engineers are trying to drive a steel pipe about 90 centimetres (nearly three feet) wide through the debris—wide enough for the trapped men to squeeze through.

Excavators have been removing debris since Sunday morning from the site of the collapse in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand to create an escape tunnel for the workers, some of whom have fallen sick.

But rescue efforts have been slowed by debris continuing to fall as workers laboured to clear the tunnel, with progress stalled after an earth-boring drill developed problems.

The air force flew in a second drilling machine on a C-130 Hercules military plane on Wednesday, with the giant drill bit stretching much the length of the aircraft’s cargo hold.

As rescuers race to save the men, India has sought advice from the Thai company that rescued children from a flooded cave in 2018, as well as engineering experts in soil and rock mechanics at the Norwegian Geo-Technical Institute.Rescuers can communicate with the trapped men using radios.