SILKYARA TUNNEL, India
Just a few meters of rock and earth separate Indian rescue teams from 41 workers who have been trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks, officials said Friday, saying they were optimistic of success within hours.
After a series of rapid
advances, hopes that the men’s freedom was imminent were dashed late Wednesday
when the drilling machine powering through tons of rock and concrete ran into
metal rods, but those have now been cleared.
Rescue teams have stretchers
fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57 meters (187 feet)
of steel pipe — once it has been driven through the final section of rubble
blocking their escape.
“We have to (drill) 14 meters
further inside the tunnel,” Bhaskar Khulbe, a senior government official
overseeing rescue efforts, told reporters on Friday.
“If everything goes well, we
hope to reach them by today evening,” he said, adding that the “trapped workers
are in good frame of mind.”
But a government statement has
also noted that any timeline was “subject to change due to technical glitches,
the challenging Himalayan terrain, and unforeseen emergencies.”
The area outside the tunnel
has been a flurry of activity, with worried relatives gathering and rescue
teams stopping to pray at a Hindu shrine erected at the entrance.
Ambulances are on standby and
a field hospital has been prepared to receive the men who have been trapped
since a portion of the under-construction tunnel in the Himalayan state of
Uttarakhand caved in 13 days ago.
National Disaster Response
Force chief Atul Karwal said his teams have been rehearsing how — once the
steel pipe breaks through — they will bring the men out as quickly and safely
as possible.
“The boys will go in first,”
he said Thursday. “We have put wheels under the stretchers so that when we go
in, we can get the people out one by one on the stretcher — we are prepared in
every way.”
Rescue efforts have been hit
with repeated delays caused by falling debris, fears of further cave-ins and
drilling machine breakdowns.
Uttarakhand chief minister
Pushkar Singh Dhami said Thursday the work was on a “war footing,” with a “team
of doctors, ambulances, helicopters and a field hospital” set up.
Syed Ata Hasnain, a senior
rescue official and retired general, said their efforts were “like battle.”
“Here, the land is your
enemy,” he said Thursday. “Himalayan geology is the enemy... it is very
challenging work.”
Experts have warned of the
impact of extensive construction in Uttarakhand, large parts of which are prone
to landslides.
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