Indian soldiers are preparing this Monday to manually excavate the tunnel and try to reach the 41 workers trapped for 16 days after rescue operations suffered several setbacks.
When only nine meters remained to drill, allowing the insertion of the final sections of a 57 meter long steel pipe, wide enough for a man to pass through and allowing the removal of workers, metal rods and construction vehicles that on the ground how they damaged the machine.
Indian soldiers will attempt to remove rocks and debris from the remaining nine meters on Monday as temperatures drop in this isolated mountainous region of Himalayan state Uttarakhand.
“The Indian Army Technical Battalion personnel and other rescue teams are preparing for this operation,” said a senior local official, Abhishek Ruhela.
Since the tunnel collapsed on November 12, rescue efforts have been complicated and delayed by falling debris and repeated failures of machinery crucial to rescuing workers.
The workers were able to survive for two weeks thanks to the supply of air, food, water and electricity through a duct in which an endoscopic camera was placed.
The collapse occurred in the early hours of November 12, when a group of workers left the site and a replacement team arrived.
The landslide caused part of the 4.5 kilometer long tunnel to collapse, about 200 meters from the entrance.
The site of the collapse is in Uttarakhand, a mountainous state with several Hindu temples that draw many pilgrims and tourists and a constant construction of highways and buildings to respond to the increasing flow of visitors.
The tunnel is part of the busy Chardham Road, a federal flagship project connecting several Hindu pilgrimage sites.
Source: DN
