Indian rescuers have reached the site of 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand state after 17 days and are installing tubes to bring them out.
"The process of laying pipes in the tunnel to bring the workers out has been completed," Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said today, adding that the trapped workers would be brought out of the tunnel soon.
Rescuers will use stretchers to pull the workers out one by one through a 90cm wide pipe, a process expected to take several hours, officials said.
Rescuers had to clear debris inside the rescue shaft before crawling inside to begin the process of bringing the 41 trapped workers out to safety, officials said.
Rescue teams and ambulances wait outside the entrance to a mine where 41 workers are trapped in Uttarakhand state, India, November 28. Photo: Reuters
Dozens of rescue workers were waiting outside the tunnel and ambulances were also mobilized to quickly take the victims to the hospital about 30 km away.
Forty-one workers were trapped after a road tunnel under construction in the Himalayas collapsed on November 12. Officials have not yet announced the cause of the collapse, but the area is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
Over the past 17 days, Indian authorities have deployed many rescue plans for the victims, but have encountered many difficulties due to terrain and weather conditions. By November 27, they had to apply the "rat hole" method, using manual drilling machines to create an opening through the last meters of rock and soil to where the group of workers were trapped.
The tunnel where the workers were trapped is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham Expressway project, one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious projects, which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites via an 890-km road network.
Ngoc Anh (According to AFP/Reuters )
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