Rescue teams in northern India failed to get 40 construction workers out of a collapsed tunnel on Monday. Everyone was fine and being provided with oxygen, food and water, said rescue effort leader Karamveer Singh Bhandari to the AFP news agency. But the rescue work is more dangerous and complex than expected. Now a huge steel pipe should be driven through the rubble as an escape route.
The road tunnel in the state of Uttarakhand collapsed over a length of 200 meters during construction work on Sunday morning when the workers were changing shifts. With the help of heavy excavators, the rescue teams managed to clear away the heavy debris over a distance of 20 meters by Monday. But that meant they were still 40 meters away from the trapped workers, while at the same time more rubble continued to fall.
“The good thing is that the workers are not squeezed and have a buffer zone of around 400 meters to move and breathe,” Deventra Patwal of the disaster management agency told the Indian Express newspaper.
According to the state-owned company responsible for the tunnel construction, the rescue teams were able to establish initial contact with those trapped during the night using a small piece of paper. However, the connection with radio devices is now established.
Accordingly, the plan is now to get those trapped out using a steel pipe that will be driven through the rubble using a special device. With a diameter of 90 centimeters, it is just enough for the workers to squeeze through. She is scheduled to arrive at the scene of the accident on Monday evening.
With the 4.5 kilometer long tunnel between Silkyara and Dandalgaon, the authorities wanted to connect two ancient Hindu temples in the Himalayas. It is part of a road construction project heavily promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is primarily intended to ensure better connections to some of the country’s most popular Hindu shrines.
