Rescuers in collapsed tunnel in India modifies strategy after a week

Indian officials are trying to find new ways to save 40 construction workers who are stuck underground for more than a week.

The workers got stuck when a tunnel they were building fell down a bit in Uttarakhand last Sunday.

Even though the men are given food and water, a doctor said some of them are getting sick, and have been throwing up and getting headaches.

State officials have agreed to buy more tools and hire more people to make escape tunnels on both sides of the tunnel.

We are still thinking about drilling straight down from the top of the hill, which we are already doing.

Rescue workers have been working without stopping to reach the trapped workers. They got a strong drilling machine on Thursday to help. But the mountain is delicate and there might be more rocks falling, making the rescue harder.

“We are going to use a stop-and-start method to keep things balanced,” said Anshu Manish Khalkho, the director of NHIDCL.

Officials in India asked for help from teams in Norway and Thailand who were able to successfully rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand in 2018.

The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute said in an email to CNN that their partner Indian Railways is helping with the rescue, but their team is not involved right now.

Khalkho told the news that rescuers used a strong drilling machine to dig about 25 meters (82 feet) into the collapsed Uttarkashi tunnel. This is about one-third of the way to the trapped workers.

The people trying to help have 60 meters of stuff in the way of the men who are trapped. Khalkho said that special pipes for the rescue mission were put 25 meters (82 feet) into the debris and it worked. But there is still a little more distance to go before we reach the 40 workers.

We are putting pipes into the new hole and joining them together with welding, Khalkho said.

These pipes are connected together and will help the trapped men to escape from the part of the tunnel that has caved in.

“Even though it may seem simple at first, we have to consider the impact of the drilling vibrations on the delicate ground when we’re working at the site,” Khalkho told reporters when asked how long the rescue mission would take, which is now in its seventh day.

He also said that a backup drilling machine is being flown in from Indore city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in India to help with the rescue. Reuters reported on Saturday that the first drilling machine broke on Friday and needs to be replaced.

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, told reporters that the rescue work is going well with help from engineers and experts from NHIDCL. He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping an eye on the situation.

Dhami said on Sunday that saving everyone’s life is the most important thing. The state government is ready to help all the agencies. Expert teams are working on different ways to rescue the men.

Dhami went to the site to look at the relief and rescue work happening there. He posted about it on X on Sunday.