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A woman devotee carried in a palanquin to Yamunotri temple Uttarkashi Uttarakhand, India. A tunnel is being dug close to the shrine to rescue the 41 trapped men.
- 41 men have been trapped in the tunnel for 9 days.
- Rescue efforts have been stifled by falling debris and constant breakdowns of drilling machinery.
- A new shaft is being dug two of India’s holiest Hindu shrines.
Indian rescuers were battling Monday to free 41 men trapped
in a road tunnel for nine days as they prepared to dig an entirely new shaft
after previous efforts failed.
Excavators have been removing earth, concrete, and rubble
from the under-construction tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of
Uttarakhand since 12 November, after a portion of the tunnel collapsed.
But rescue efforts have been slowed by falling debris as
well as repeated breakdowns of the crucial heavy drilling machines, with the
air force having to twice airlift new kit.
Engineers had been trying to horizontally drive a steel pipe
through the debris, just wide enough for the increasingly desperate men to
squeeze through at least 57 metres of earth and rock that block their escape.
But drilling on that route was paused on Friday after a
cracking sound created a “panic situation,” officials said.
Teams were now preparing to dig the new shaft from above,
forcing workers to cut an entirely new track up to the top of the forested hill
high above for the heavy equipment needed.
Officials estimated the proposed shaft would need to be 89
metres deep to reach the men.
Experts have warned about the impact of extensive
construction in Uttarakhand, where large parts of the state are prone to
landslides.
“Every effort is being made,” Uttarakhand chief
minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said in a statement Monday, insisting the
“workers trapped in the tunnel are safe.”
He said he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about
the crisis.
READ | 40 workers trapped in collapsed tunnel between shrines ‘safe’, Indian authorities say
‘Get them out’
Top local civil servant Abhishek Ruhela said the track to
the new drilling site was three-quarters built.
Ruhela told AFP:
Up to 900 metres of the 1200-metre-long road being built for drilling over the tunnel has been completed.
Rescuers have been communicating with the trapped workers by
radio, while food, water, oxygen, and medicine have also been sent to them via
a narrow pipe.
Anshu Manish Khalkho, director of the government’s highways
and infrastructure company, NHIDCL, said Monday that workers had successfully
installed a wider 15-centimetre (six-inch pipe), allowing more food to be sent.
“We will now provide them with food and medical
supplies through that pipe,” Khalkho said in a statement.
Foreign experts have been drafted in, including independent
disaster investigator Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and
Underground Space Association.
“We are going to find a solution and get them
out,” Dix told reporters Monday at the site.
“A lot of work is being done here. It is important that
not only the men rescued but also the men who are (doing the) rescuing are
safe.”
Villagers have set up a Hindu temple at the mouth of the
tunnel to the local god, Boukhnag, saying the original temple had been moved
during construction.
Some villagers blamed the tunnel collapse on the fact that
the initial temple was destroyed.
The tunnel is part of Modi’s infrastructure project aimed at
cutting travel times between some of the most popular Hindu sites in the
country, as well as improving access to strategic areas bordering rival China.
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