<\/p>\n
Just a few metres of rock and earth separate Indian rescue teams from 41 workers who have been trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel<\/a> for nearly two weeks, officials said on Friday, adding that they were optimistic of success within hours.<\/p>\n After a series of rapid advances, hopes that the men\u2019s freedom was imminent were dashed late on Wednesday when the drilling machine powering through tonnes of rock and concrete ran into metal rods, but those have now been cleared.<\/p>\n Rescue teams have stretchers fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57 metres of steel pipe once it has been driven through the final section of rubble blocking their escape.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to [drill] 14 metres further inside the tunnel,\u201d Bhaskar Khulbe, a senior government official overseeing rescue efforts, told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cIf everything goes well, we hope to reach them by today evening,\u201d he said, adding that the \u201ctrapped workers are in good frame of mind\u201d.<\/p>\n But a government statement has also noted that any timeline is \u201csubject to change due to technical glitches, the challenging Himalayan terrain, and unforeseen emergencies\u201d.<\/p>\n Ambulances are on standby<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n National Disaster Response Force chief Atul Karwal said his teams have been rehearsing how \u2014 once the steel pipe breaks through \u2014 they will bring the men out as quickly and safely as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cThe boys will go in first,\u201d he said yesterday. \u201cWe have put wheels under the stretchers so that when we go in, we can get the people out one by one on the stretcher \u2014 we are prepared in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n Rescue efforts have been hit with repeated delays caused by falling debris, fears of further cave-ins and drilling machine breakdowns.<\/p>\n Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who is at the site assisting the rescue, said engineers had even faced having to cut through construction vehicles buried in the earth when the roof first collapsed.<\/p>\n Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said work was on a \u201cwar footing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to overcome all the obstacles soon, and bring all the workers out safely,\u201d Dhami said on Friday.<\/p>\n Syed Ata Hasnain, a senior rescue official and retired general, said their efforts were \u201clike battle\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHere, the land is your enemy,\u201d he said. \u201cHimalayan geology is the enemy\u2026 it is very challenging work.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts have warned of the impact of extensive construction in Uttarakhand, large parts of which are prone to landslides.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just a few metres 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 on Friday, adding that they were optimistic of success within hours. After a series of rapid advances, hopes that the men\u2019s freedom was imminent were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/24135339833c770.jpg?r=140931","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Geology is the enemy\u2019<\/h2>\n