India contacts Thai cave rescue experts while racing against time to save Uttarakhand tunnel workers
Visuals from Uttarakhand tunnel mishap
India has asked for advice from the Thai company that successfully rescued children from a flooded cave in 2018 as it races against time to save 40 men trapped in a road tunnel, officials were cited as saying on Wednesday (Nov 15).
Indian excavators have been removing the debris since Sunday morning (Nov 12) from a site in Uttarakhand state to create an escape tunnel for the workers, all of whom are currently alive.
Officials have "contacted the Thai company which rescued the children trapped in the cave", Uttarakhand's department of public relations said in an official statement while referring to a rescue operation to rescue 12 boys from a junior football team and their coach who were trapped for more than two weeks in the Tham Luang cave complex in 2018.
State govt reachesout to experts from Norway
The Uttarakhand state authorities have also asked for help from the engineering experts in soil and rock mechanics at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute as efforts to free the men continued into a fourth day.
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On Wednesday, medicine was sent to the 40 men trapped in the road tunnel they were building.
"After consultation with doctors, medicine has been sent to the workers through pipes," police officer Prashant Kumar was quoted as saying by the AFP from the site. "Contact is being maintained with the workers."
Rescue ops continue on 'war footing'
Food and oxygen had also been sent to the trapped workers, he said.
The pace of drilling was "slow because of natural causes", but efforts were being made on a "war footing", Uttarakhand state police chief Ashok Kumar said in a statement on Wednesday.
The air force on Wednesday flew in a second drilling machine on a C-130 Hercules military plane on Wednesday to "speed up rescue work" after the first one broke down, he said.
Also watch |Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: Rescue mission enters day 4
Engineers are using heavy machinery to drive a steel pipe about 90 centimetres (nearly three feet) wide through the debris, wide enough for the trapped men to get out from.
"We should keep our patience and trust," Ashok Kumar was quoted as saying by the AFP.
"I am sure that we will rescue all the labourers."
The 4.5-kilometre (2.7-mile) tunnel was being constructed between the towns of Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect Uttarkashi and Yamunotri, two of the holiest Hindu shrines.
The tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's road project aimed at improving travel conditions between some of the most popular Hindu shrines in the country as well as areas along the Line of Actual Control with China.
(With inputs from agencies)