After 17 days, the Indian workers trapped in the tunnel could be reached

Local officials said that rescuers who entered the collapsed Himalayan tunnel in India were able to reach 41 workers who had been trapped under the rubble for 17 days by digging on Tuesday.

The 4.5-kilometre-long tunnel in Uttarakhand state collapsed on November 12. According to informants, the new process, in which people are taken out one by one on wheeled stretchers through a 90cm diameter tube, will take a few more hours. The information revealed that the pipe must be pushed through the hole, the debris cleaned from it, and then rescuers can climb over it and begin removing the workers.

On Tuesday, dozens of rescuers lined up in front of the tunnel with ropes and ladders, while ambulances arrived to transport the 41 men to the hospital, about thirty kilometers away. The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Tsar Dham Expressway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most ambitious projects to connect the four major Hindu pilgrimage sites to an 890-kilometre road network.

An under-construction highway tunnel collapsed, likely due to a landslide, burying construction workers near the town of Uttarkasi. So far, authorities have delivered food, vitamin C and medication, including anti-depressant pills, to those trapped inside via a smaller diameter tube, and have kept in touch with them via a radio transceiver.

Authorities did not mention the exact cause of the collapse, but landslides, earthquakes and floods are common in the area.

(MTI)