SILKYARA, India (Reuters): Rescuers in India are less than 5 metres (16 feet) away from 41 men who have been trapped in a collapsed highway tunnel in the Himalayas for more than two weeks, and are confident of drilling through to reach them on Tuesday, officials said.
The men, low-wage workers from India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5 km (3 mile) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov. 12.
So-called rat miners, brought in on Monday to drill through the rocks and gravel by hand from inside a 900-millimetre (3 feet) wide evacuation pipe that has been pushed through the debris after machinery failed, made good progress overnight, officials said.
“Earlier, we ran into metal obstacles, but that has reduced now,” Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters. “Now we are finding more concrete which is being cut with cutters.”
“We are hoping that the way in which the work is making progress there will be a breakthrough very soon,” he said. “Once the pipe goes through the process of removing the men will be initiated.”
The men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe but efforts to dig a tunnel to reach and rescue them with drilling machines have been frustrated by a series of snags.
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