Operation to save 41 workers trapped in India tunnel delayed

An operation to save 41 construction workers trapped for two weeks in a collapsed tunnel in northern India stalled after a drilling machine being used by rescuers broke down.

The machine was brought in to help drill through nearly 200 feet of debris, but stopped working on Friday night and crews were forced to remove it, officials said.

Hand-held power tools will be used to break through the final 30 feet of debris instead, they added. 

“The machine is busted. It is irreparable,” said Arnold Dix, a tunneling expert who is assisting the rescue team in Uttarakhand state. 

The workers, a majority of whom are migrant laborers from around the country, were trapped Nov. 12, when part of the 2.8-mile tunnel they were building collapsed roughly 650 feet from the entrance due to a landslide. 

The machine, called an auger, was damaged after hitting an obstacle, and broke while being removed through a roughly 154-foot pipe installed to help pull out the trapped men on wheeled stretchers.  

Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of Uttarakhand state, said the damaged drill would be removed by Sunday morning, allowing rescuers to continue working manually.

Rescuers are also pursuing an alternative plan to reach the trapped men by digging downward and a new vertical drilling machine was brought to the site Saturday.

The rescue team for the vertical drilling operation though will need to dig down 338 feet to reach the trapped workers — nearly double the distance of the horizontal shaft.

Authorities said that the trapped men are safe and have access to oxygen, dry food and water.

Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority which is overseeing rescue efforts, warned, however, that the operation was becoming “more complex” and that it would take longer to save the men working by hand, compared to using the auger to drill.

“We have to strengthen our brothers stuck inside. We need to monitor their psychological state, because this operation can go on for a very long time,” he said, without giving a timeline.

Sunita Hembrom, whose brother-in-law Birendra Kishku, 39, is in the tunnel, said on Saturday morning, the trapped workers were “very worried”.

“My brother-in-law told me that he hasn’t eaten any food since yesterday,” she said. ” We are very worried.”

Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel collapse, but the area is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.

The tunnel was being built is part of the Chardham all-weather road, a flagship federal project that will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites.

With Post wires