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The
disaster management office revised the number of people trapped
since Sunday morning in the tunnel in Uttarakhand state to 41,
up from 40. All are safe, the authorities have said.
The augur machine drilling through the debris broke on Friday.
A new machine flown in from the central Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, has reached the site, Anshu Malik Halko, director at
state-run National Highways and Infrastructure Development
Corporation (NHIDC) told Reuters.
"We will first bring out the defunct machine from inside and
then deploy the new one. This will take time and I cannot
comment on the timeline. It's a delicate and risky operation,"
Halko said.
Authorities have not said what caused the 4.5-km (3-mile) tunnel
to cave in, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes
and floods.
Fifty to sixty workers were on the overnight shift at the time
of the collapse, and those near the exit got out of the tunnel
on the national highway that is part of the Char Dham Hindu
pilgrimage route.
Work was suspended on Friday after a "large-scale cracking
sound" was heard as rescue workers sought to restart the
drilling machine, according to a report from NHIDC.
Close to 100 tunnel workers gathered at the site on Saturday,
demanding faster progress in reaching and freeing those trapped.
Vishnu Sahu, a labourer who was leading the protest, said the
rescue team is keeping workers in the dark about the pace of
progress of the rescue.
"We want the top people of the company to come here," Sahu said.
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Silkyara; Writing by Ira Dugal;
Editing by William Mallard and Tom Hogue)
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