Rescuers battled for a second day to save 40 workers
trapped underground after the road tunnel they were building collapsed,
bringing down tonnes of debris, in Uttarakhand.
Teams using heavy excavators have been working nonstop
since the collapse early Sunday morning to clear piles of concrete and earth,
but with more debris falling as workers tried to clear a passage, a giant steel
pipe was being prepared as an escape route.
“All the 40 workers trapped inside the tunnel are
safe,” said National Disaster Response Force’s senior commander Karamveer Singh
Bhandari from the incident site, adding that water and food had been sent.
Oxygen was being pumped into the blocked portion of
the tunnel, with food sent through a water pipe.
Rathodi said excavators had removed about 20 metres
(65 feet) of heavy debris, but the men were 40 metres beyond that point.
“Due to excess debris in the tunnel, we are facing
some difficulty in the rescue, but our team is leaving no stone unturned,” he
added.
Teams plan to use a heavy machine to drive a steel
pipe with a width of 90 centimetres (nearly three feet), wide enough for the
trapped men to squeeze through, the government’s highway and infrastructure
company said.
“Water, food, oxygen, electricity all are available
with the work force trapped inside the tunnel… All the stranded workers are
safe as communicated by them,” the statement added.
Initial contact was made via a note on a scrap of
paper, but later rescuers managed to connect using radio handsets.
“Some small food packets were sent in through a pipe
which is also taking oxygen inside,” said rescue official Durgesh Rathodi from
the site.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who flew
to the site of the accident immediately, said the work to remove the tumbled
concrete debris was “being made continuously to bring them out safely”.
“Contact has been made with the workers trapped in the
tunnel through a walkie-talkie,” he said. “Efforts are being made to get them
out safely soon.”
One rescue worker, quoted by the Press Trust of India
news agency, said the men were contacted shortly after midnight on Monday.
Disaster response official Devendra Patwal said while
the men were trapped, they had space in the tunnel area where they were.
“The good thing is that the labourers are not crammed
in, and have a buffer of around 400 metres to walk and breathe,” Patwal told
the Indian Express newspaper.
The 4.5-kilometre (2.7-mile) tunnel is being
constructed between Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect two of the holiest Hindu
shrines of Uttarkashi and Yamunotri.
Photographs released by the government rescue teams
showed huge piles of rubble blocking the wide tunnel, with twisted metal bars
on its broken roof poking down in front of the rubble.
The tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
road project aimed to improve connectivity for some of the most popular Hindu
shrines in the country, as well as areas bordering China.
AFP
