Rescuers in India are preparing to dig by hand to reach 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for 16 days, a rescue operation hit by repeated setbacks.
Military engineers plan to use a so-called “rat-hole mining” technique, digging by hand to clear the rocks and rubble over the remaining 9 metres (29 feet), with temperatures plummeting in the remote mountain location in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
The men, low-wage workers from India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km (3 miles) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on November 12.
The men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe but efforts to dig a tunnel have run into a series of snags with machines.
First pictures of India’s trapped tunnel workers
Attempts to drill a tunnel horizontally through the debris trapping the men have been plagued by damage to machinery, and rescuers will resort to drilling by hand, after clearing away the broken equipment inside the narrow evacuation pipe.
The drilling from inside the pipe, which is 900mm (3 feet) wide, will be done by a team of six “rat miners” from central India, who officials described as “skilled workers”.
Rat mining is a primitive, hazardous and controversial method used in India mostly to remove coal deposits through narrow passages. The name comes from its resemblance to rats burrowing through narrow holes.
Source: Aljazeera.com
