More than one hundred rescuers work continues for the third consecutive day to save 40 workers trapped underground in northern India and who are still alive after collapse of a tunnel under constructionreported local authorities.
The accident occurred on Sunday morning in a 4.5 kilometer long tunnel under constructionin the state of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas.
The excavators began to remove the rubble from the site on Sunday. to be able to drill another tunnel and thus rescue the workers.
“Our greatest advance is that we have established contact and there is a supply of oxygen and food,” the main civil authority of the district of Uttarkashi, Abhishek Ruhela.
“Everything necessary for their survival is being done”he added.
Rescue teams are pumping oxygen and also sending workers rations to feed them.
Rescuers were able to talk to trapped workers using a radio
Ranjit Kumar Sinha a senior official in charge of disaster managementassured local journalists that he hopes the workers will be rescued tomorrow and affirmed that they have enough oxygen to “five to six days.”
The public infrastructure and highway company indicated that is installing aluminum cylinders of 90 centimeters in diameter so that workers can use them as an evacuation route.
The damaged tunnel is part of a plan to connect the towns of Silkyara and Dangalgaonwhich house two of the holiest hindu templesthat of Uttarkashi and that of Yamunotri.
The work is part of a project of the first Indian Minister Narendra Modi to improve the connection between some of the most popular Hindu shrines and modernize access to regions near the border with China.
Hemant Nayaka construction worker who was outside the tunnel at the time of the collapse, said that there were small landslides that fell into the tunnel, but that “everyone took it lightly.”
“Then suddenly large amounts of debris fell and the tunnel was closed,” he said. Nayak to AFP.
Source: Ambito
