41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India will soon be rescued, official says

Officials in India are close to rescuing 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand state for over two weeks.

The situation: The construction workers have been trapped since November 12, when a landslide caused a 2.8-mile tunnel they were working on to collapse about 650 feet from the entrance.
* State officials said that rescuers are making a passage through a combination of manual digging and pipe welding.
* Some workers have been digging by hand through rocks and debris after a drilling machine broke down.
* Authorities have supplied the trapped workers with hot meals and oxygen through pipes.

Update on the rescue operation: Rescuers have made significant progress by manually drilling through over 50 meters of debris after a machine broke down after completing around 47 meters.
* A new vertical channel is also being created as a contingency plan.
* Arnold Dix, an international tunneling expert assisting with the rescue, expressed confidence in the progress of the rescue operation.

About the project: The collapsed tunnel was part of the Chardham all-weather road, aimed at connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites.
* However, some experts are worried that the project might worsen the fragile conditions in the upper Himalayas, where several towns are built atop landslide debris.

Families’ reaction: Many family members of the trapped workers have camped out at the location for days, awaiting updates about the rescue effort and hoping to see their relatives.
View original article on NPR
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