Rescuers on Monday brought in “rat miners” to bore through a narrow pipe and help extricate 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for more than two weeks after high-powered machinery broke down, officials said.
The men, low-wage workers from India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on 12 November.
The men received food, water, light, oxygen and medicine through a tube, but efforts to dig a tunnel ran into a series of entanglements with machinery.
Efforts to bore a tunnel horizontally through the debris trapping the men have damaged machinery and rescuers will resort to digging by hand after clearing broken equipment inside the narrow evacuation tube.
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Drilling from inside the pipe, which is 900 millimeters (3 feet) wide, will be done by a team of six “miner rats” from central India, who officials described as “skilled workers”.
“Rat mining” is a primitive, dangerous and controversial method used in India mainly to remove coal deposits through narrow passages. The name comes from its resemblance to rats burrowing through narrow holes.
“Three of us will go into the tunnel, one will do the drilling, another will collect mud and the third will push the mud through the trolley,” said Rakesh Rajput, one of the miners. Reuters.
“We have been doing it for more than 10 years and there is enough space for us. The 41 men are also workers and we all want to get them out,” he said.
Rat miners stand before starting manual drilling, in Uttarkashi in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, November 27, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS
“sure way”
Government and private agencies involved in the rescue are pursuing other options. On Sunday, they opened another route to the men, aiming to drill a shaft straight through the top of the mountain above.
By Monday afternoon, they had drilled 31 meters (102 feet) of the 86 meters (282 feet), officials said, adding that the focus remains on the horizontal run.
“Skilled workers will do the manual drilling,” said Harpal Singh, former head of the state-run Border Roads Organisation. “That’s a sure way to make progress.”
Bad weather could complicate the rescue. Thunderstorms, hail and lower temperatures with a minimum of 9 degrees Celsius (48.2 degrees Fahrenheit) are forecast in the mountains.
Read: India’s bid to free 41 trapped workers enters third week
“They are trained to work in any situation, so this is not a concern for us,” said Mahmood Ahmad, managing director of NHIDCL, which is building the tunnel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s principal secretary, or chief of staff, P.K. Mishra, visited the spot and spoke to the trapped men through a communication link. He told them “everyone is trying to get you all out as soon as possible”.
The tunnel is part of the Char Dham Expressway, one of Modi’s most ambitious projects, which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites through 890km of roads.
Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in that trapped the men as they neared the end of their night shift, but the area is prone to landslides, earthquakes and flooding.
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