Rescuers have had to dig their way to the workers, who have been trapped for 17 days. – The work to lay the tunnel to be able to take out workers is now finished. They will be brought out of the tunnel soon, says Pushkar Singh Dhami, head of Uttarakhand state. Much of the excavation has been done by hand. The 4.5 kilometer long mine shaft collapsed in the early morning of 12 November. Since then, food and medicine have been brought in for the 41 workers while the excavation has been going on. An evacuation tube has been created through which the workers must get out. Transported to hospital The work of getting them out, one by one on a stretcher, through the 90 centimeter wide evacuation tube, will take a few hours. TENSE SITUATION: Ambulances are queuing outside the mine in India. Photo: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS / Reuters Dozens of rescue workers with ropes and ladders are lined up outside the tunnel and ambulances are on hand to transport the 41 workers to a hospital about 30 kilometers away. Section of motorway The rescue work has progressed slowly and has been delayed due to landslides and repeated problems with the heavy drilling equipment. Temperatures have also been dropping in the remote mountain area in the state of Uttarakhand, writes NTB. The tunnel the workers were working in when it collapsed is part of the Char Dham Expressway, a major government transport project. The aim is to connect four Hindu pilgrimage destinations through an 890 kilometer road network. The authorities have not disclosed what caused the collapse, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
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Miners in India trapped – now they must be taken out – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
