<\/p>\n
Indian rescuers brought in a new digging machine on Saturday to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks after efforts through another route hit snags just metres<\/a> from reaching the men.<\/p>\n In the latest setback in frantic attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, engineers driving a metal pipe through 57 metres of rock and concrete ran into metal rods and construction vehicles buried in the earth.<\/p>\n Just 9m from breaking through, drilling with a giant earth-boring machine has stalled while using gas-cutting tools to remove thick metal girders from inside the confined pipe \u2014 just wide enough for a man to crawl through \u2014 is tricky.<\/p>\n \u201cWork is now being done to cut and clear the blockage,\u201d top local civil servant Abhishek Ruhela told AFP<\/em> on Saturday.<\/p>\n Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said the main drilling machine was broken and work was ongoing to remove it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe machine has broken. It\u2019s irreparable. It is disrupted,\u201d he told reporters at the tunnel site.<\/p>\n But Dix, who is assisting the rescue, said he was not giving up hope as there were \u201cmany ways\u201d to reach the men.<\/p>\n \u201cI am confident that the 41 men are coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n Rescue efforts have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris as well as repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy drilling machines, with the air force having to airlift new kit twice.<\/p>\n 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 Silkyara tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand caved in on November 12<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the same time, AFP<\/em> reporters at the site saw a heavy earth digger being taken up the specially cut track to the top of a forested hill above the tunnel to start a risky vertical shaft.<\/p>\n \u201cThe work of reaching the labourers trapped inside is in the final stages,\u201d Ruhela told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever option possible to reach them is being considered.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials estimate the proposed vertical shaft would need to be 89m deep, a complex dig above the men in an area that has already suffered a collapse.<\/p>\n Work has also begun digging from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer third route estimated to be around 480m.<\/p>\n Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the authorities and teams of international experts were working on all options.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will soon be successful in evacuating our labour brothers safely,\u201d he said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n Rescue teams have stretchers fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57m of pipe if it can be driven through the final section of rubble blocking their escape.<\/p>\n The workers were seen alive for the first time on Tuesday, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity are being delivered.<\/p>\n Since Wednesday, officials have repeatedly said they were optimistic of a breakthrough within hours. Still, 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 Syed Ata Hasnain, a senior rescue official and retired general, said their efforts were \u201clike battle\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBy any means, we must get these brave men out,\u201d he told reporters on Friday afternoon, adding that \u201call resources\u201d needed were being utilised.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to be very, very careful in further progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Though trapped, they have plenty of space in the tunnel, with the area inside 8.5m high and stretching about two kilometres in length.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Indian rescuers brought in a new digging machine on Saturday to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks after efforts through another route hit snags just metres from reaching the men. In the latest setback in frantic attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, engineers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28338,"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\/25164732a1d509e.jpg?r=164759","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28337","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=28337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Challenging Himalayan terrain\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Very careful in further progress\u2019<\/h2>\n