SILKYARA TUNNEL, India: Ambulances were on standby Thursday morning (Nov 23) as Indian rescuers dug through the final metres of debris separating them from 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks.
Emergency vehicles and a field hospital stood ready, AFP journalists at the site said, preparing to receive the men who authorities hope will soon be freed from the tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Engineers have been digging for days to drive a steel pipe through some 57m of earth, concrete and rubble that has divided the trapped men from freedom since a portion of the under-construction tunnel caved in on Nov 12.
After days of painfully slow progress, engineers with a powerful drilling machine made a sudden rapid advance on Wednesday, before being slowed with just 12m to go after metal rods blocked the route.
“WAR FOOTING”
But after workers through the night crouched in the narrow area cut through the metal rods, the route was reopened for the earth-boring machine to drill the final section, Praveen Yadav, one of the rescue team told reporters on Thursday morning.
“We have cut and cleared the way,” he said, adding the drill would restart to make the hoped-for final push.
Source: CNA
