2023-11-17 15:02:29
Rescuers began drilling through the rubble this Thursday to free the 40 workers trapped for five days in a tunnel that collapsed in India, authorities announced. The chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand (northern), Pushkar Singh Dhami, confirmed that drilling operations had begun in the tunnel, which collapsed on Sunday.
“The evacuation of personnel trapped in the tunnel is the absolute priority,” the chief minister said in a statement posted on social media. “We are trying to get workers out safely as soon as possible.”
The objective of the operation is to introduce a steel cylinder of approximately 90 centimeters in diameter through which the workers, who are all alive, can be evacuated.
India sought advice from a Thai company that saved a group of children from a cave in 2018, as well as experts in soil mechanics and geologists from a Norwegian institute.
The rescuers, who maintain communication with the workers by radio, sent them medicine, food and oxygen through pipes.
Some of the trapped workers suffer vomiting, headaches, anxiety and stomach problems, a nurse told the Indian Express newspaper.
Excavators had begun to remove debris on Sunday to try to create a passage but new landslides occurred, leaving two workers injured.
The damaged tunnel is part of a plan to connect the towns of Silkyara and Dangalgaon, which are home to two of the most sacred Hindu temples, Uttarkashi and Yamunotri.
The work is part of a project by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve connections between some of the most popular Hindu shrines and modernize access to regions near the border with China.
Experts have warned about the impact of large construction in Uttarakhand, where large parts of the territory are prone to landslides.
Accidents in large infrastructure projects are common in India.
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