Uttarakhand tunnel rescue: Trapped workers 'playing cricket' inside, ops to be completed 'soon'

International tunnelling expert Arnold Dix on Tuesday (Nov 28) expressed satisfaction with the pace of the manual drilling that has been going on for the last two days to help rescue trapped workers from the collapsed tunnel in India's northern state of Uttarakhand.

"I just feel good. The drilling on top of the mountain is coming along perfectly, and in the tunnel, it's coming along very well," Dix told reporters on Tuesday near the rescue site.

He also emphasised that he has never said 'I'm feeling good' before, implying that the rescue operation might be heading towards its final phase now.

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When the media asked him about the condition of the trapped workers, Dix said, "I might have heard they are playing cricket."

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said Tuesdaythe rescue ops were "expected to be completed soon", without giving any timeline.

"The escape passage has been prepared up to 52 metres inside the tunnel, and the passage will break through at 57 metres," he told the media.

Watch:Vertical drilling into tunnel still in process

Experts in Uttarakhand have resorted to ‘rat-hole’ mining to help rescue 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel. A stretch of five to six metres was left to be manually drilled Tuesday morning (Nov 28), even as vertical drilling was also being done simultaneously.

By Tuesday morning, drilling from above the tunnel had reached a depth of 36 metres out of the 86 metres needed.

A total of 12 rat-hole mining experts are involved in the rescue operations.

However, experts warn that they won't be surprised if the operations are hit by further delays due to unexpected hurdles.

Dix cautioned that a minor obstacle such as an earthquake could again jeopardise the operation.

“Even 1 metre is a thousand kilometres under an avalanche. Because you never know what's coming next. If there was an earthquake right now, which there often is, 1m is another thousand kilometres,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)