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 there were only nine meters of drilling left that would allow the final parts of a 57-meter-long steel tube to be inserted, wide enough for a man to pass through and that would allow workers, metal bars and construction vehicles that were in the way to be removed. . how they damaged the machine.
Indian military personnel will attempt to clear rocks and debris from these remaining nine meters as temperatures drop in this isolated mountainous region of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
“Personnel from the Indian Army’s engineer battalion as well as other rescue teams are preparing for this operation,” said a senior local official, Abhishek Ruhela.
Since the tunnel collapsed on Nov. 12, rescue efforts have been complicated and slowed by falling debris and repeated failures of machinery crucial to rescuing workers.
The workers have survived for two weeks thanks to the supply of air, food, water and electricity through a conduit into which an endoscopic camera was inserted.
The collapse occurred in the early hours of November 12, when a group of workers were leaving the site and a replacement team arrived.
The landslide caused part of the 4.5 kilometer 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 attract many pilgrims and tourists and the construction of roads and buildings has been constant to respond to an increasing flow of visitors.
The tunnel is part of the busy Chardham Road, a landmark federal project linking several Hindu pilgrimage sites.
Source: TSF
