Two weeks after a highway tunnel collapsed in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, rescuers have yet to rescue 41 trapped workers.
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| Rescue operations for trapped workers at the site of a tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand state, India. (Source: Hindustan) |
On November 25, rescuers deployed a new excavator to the scene to create a vertical shaft down the tunnel, after other attempts to clear the way encountered obstacles just metres away from the trapped people.
According to engineers' calculations, the vertical shaft needs to be about 89m deep to ensure the safety of those trapped below, given the ground has collapsed. The collapse occurred in the Himalayan mountain area, so the mountainous terrain is also an obstacle to rescue work.
Engineers have laid a metal pipe through 57m of buried earth, cement, metal bars and construction machinery. About 9m from where the trapped workers are, the giant drilling operation has been halted. A rescue team has also deployed at a third location, about 480m away.
Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association, said the main excavator had broken down, causing the excavation to be interrupted.
Since the tunnel collapsed on November 12, rescue efforts have been slow and complicated as rocks continue to collapse and important heavy drilling machines continue to malfunction or break down.
The air force has twice dropped relief supplies to those trapped. Ambulances remain at the scene, while a field hospital has been set up to receive those trapped.
On November 21, rescuers got their first glimpse of the trapped workers thanks to images captured by an endoscope that they dropped down a narrow tube used to deliver oxygen, food, and water to those below. Forty-one workers survived in the collapsed tunnel, which was about 2km long and 8.5m high.
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