People watch rescue and aid operations on the web site of an under-construction highway tunnel that collapsed in mountainous Uttarakhand state in India on Nov. 15, 2023.

AP Photo/File

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AP Photo/File

People watch rescue and aid operations on the web site of an under-construction highway tunnel that collapsed in mountainous Uttarakhand state in India on Nov. 15, 2023.

AP Photo/File

UTTARKASHI, India — Officials in India mentioned Tuesday they have been on the verge of rescuing the 41 building employees trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks within the nation’s north, after rescuers drilled their manner via particles to succeed in them.

The employees are to be pulled out via a passageway manufactured from welded pipes which rescuers pushed via dust and rocks.

“Soon all the laborers brothers will be taken out,” Pushkar Singh Dhami, prime official in Uttarakhand state, the place the accident occurred, posted on social media platform X, previously generally known as Twitter.

Kirti Panwar, a state authorities spokesperson, mentioned a few dozen males had labored in a single day to manually dig via rocks and particles, taking turns to drill utilizing hand-held drilling instruments and clearing out the muck in what he mentioned was the ultimate stretch of the rescue operation.

Rescuers resorted to handbook digging after the drilling machine broke down irreparably on Friday whereas drilling horizontally from the entrance due to the mountainous terrain of Uttarakhand. The machine bored via about 47 meters (practically 154 ft) out of roughly the 57-60 meters (practically 187-196 ft) wanted, earlier than rescuers began to work by hand to create a passageway to evacuate the trapped employees. Authorities on Tuesday mentioned rescuers had managed to drill via over 50 meters in whole up to now.

Rescue groups have inserted pipes into dug-out areas and welded them collectively so the employees might be introduced out on wheeled stretchers.

The laborers have been trapped since Nov. 12 when a landslide brought on a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel they have been constructing to break down about 200 meters (650 ft) from the doorway.

Rescuers on Sunday additionally started to create a vertical channel with a newly changed drilling machine as a contingency plan.

What started as a rescue mission anticipated to take a couple of days has became weeks, and officers have been hesitant to present a timeline for when it is likely to be accomplished.

“I just feel good. The drilling on top of the mountain is coming along perfectly, in the tunnel, it’s coming along very well. I have never said ‘I feel good’ before,” Arnold Dix, a global tunneling skilled who helps with the rescue, informed reporters on the web site on Tuesday.

Most of the trapped employees are migrant laborers from throughout the nation. Many of their households have traveled to the placement, the place they’ve camped out for days to get updates on the rescue effort and in hopes of seeing their family quickly.

Authorities have equipped the trapped employees with scorching meals via a 6-inch (15-centimeter) pipe after days of surviving solely on dry meals despatched via a narrower pipe. They are getting oxygen via a separate pipe, and greater than a dozen docs, together with psychiatrists, have been on the web site monitoring their well being.

The tunnel the employees have been constructing was designed as a part of the Chardham all-weather highway, which can join varied Hindu pilgrimage websites. Some specialists say the mission, a flagship initiative of the federal authorities, will exacerbate fragile circumstances within the higher Himalayas, the place a number of cities are constructed atop landslide particles.

Large numbers of pilgrims and vacationers go to Uttarakhand’s many Hindu temples, with the quantity growing through the years due to the continued building of buildings and roadways.