Large machines fail to clear rubble as workers remain trapped in collapsed Indian tunnel for fourth day

Heavy machinery was unable to clear the rubble blocking a collapsed under-construction tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand as 40 workers remained trapped inside for the fourth day.

Rescuers were now awaiting the arrival of a heavy drilling machine being airlifted to the site, according to reports.

The trapped workers were said to be safe at the moment and being provided with oxygen, water, food packets, and medicines through tubes. Communication with them was re-established via walkie-talkies, media reports said.

The tunnel collapsed after a landslide struck the region at around 5.30am on Sunday. The men were working on the Char Dham highway, one of the most ambitious projects of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites in the mountains through 890km (550 miles) of roads at a cost of $1.5bn (£1.2bn).

There were up to 60 men on the night shift in the 4.5km (3 mile) tunnel, when it collapsed before dawn. Men near the end of the tunnel managed to get out in time but the 40 trapped men were working deeper inside.

On the fourth day of the rescue operation at the collapse site, tunnel workers and locals staged a protest against the administration and the construction company, alleging insufficient efforts to rescue those trapped inside.

One worker identified as Luv Kumar Raturi was quoted as saying by The Indian Express that “officials are not talking to us properly, neither there is any actual information of what is happening inside”.

“We are also not allowed to go inside the tunnel. It’s the fourth day and nothing conclusive is happening. Those inside are our brothers,” Mr Raturi said.

Rescuers were employing a “trenchless” method by assembling pathways constructed with steel pipes directly through the debris, allowing the men to crawl out.

The rescue operation was hindered on Tuesday night after parts of an auger – a machine used to drill steel pipes through rubble – broke upon contact with a boulder. Another auger drilling machine was being transported to the site from Delhi, Devendra Patwal, Uttarkashi disaster management officer, said.

“On Tuesday evening, fresh debris fell where the auger machine had been placed to drill holes in the piled up debris to set in the large diameter pipes. Then, again, when the rescuers started drilling through the auger machine a boulder in the debris blocked its way,” he said.

The Uttarakhand state government’s disaster management secretary, Ranjit Sinha, said they had expected to complete the evacuation of the workers by late on Tuesday night but falling debris had complicated the operation.

The trapped workers were reportedly from different parts of India.

“The rescue operation is challenging but we are trying our best to rescue the trapped workers,” a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official told news agency Press Trust of India.

India’s Himalayas are prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods. Geologists, residents and officials have blamed rapid construction for causing subsidence on slopes.

The road project has faced criticism from environmental experts and some work was halted after hundreds of houses were damaged by subsidence.

Work on the tunnel began in 2018 and was initially meant to be finished by July 2022. It had been due to be completed in May next year, the government said in a statement before the collapse.

Additional input from agencies