41 workers have now been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for 15 days. Now six so-called “rat hole” miners from Delhi and Jhansi have arrived to dig manually through the small tunnels. This is written by indianexpress.com.
TBM broke down
After a boring machine broke down, the rescue team has had to change strategy. For the past two days, the team has been working to drill vertically down from above the tunnel, and by Monday morning had reached approximately 31 meters of the 86 meters needed to reach the trapped workers.
Also, a unit of the Madras Sappers, which is part of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, arrived on Sunday morning to assist in the rescue operations.
Will dig manually
Early on Monday morning, the jammed blades of the drilling machine in the Silkyara tunnel were removed. Now the rescue team is removing 1.5 meters of damaged pipe. When the machine drilling through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel broke down, it marked another major setback in efforts to reach the trapped workers. Now, rescue teams plan to manually dig through the remaining rubble to reach the trapped workers, officials told indianexpress.com.
Earns less than DKK 2,000 per month
The 41 men inside the collapsed tunnel are doing well, according to Indian officials. These are low-paid Indian tunnel workers who earn between just under 1,500 and 2,000 Danish kroner per month working in the tunnel.
