The rescuers replace the drill on the 7th day

INDIA:

Rescuers trying to reach workers trapped for nearly a week in a collapsed highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas are working to replace the main digger on Saturday to resume operations after hitting a roadblock.

The disaster management office revised the number of people trapped since Sunday morning in the tunnel in Uttarakhand state to 41, from 40. All are safe, authorities said.

The egg machine driving through the wreckage broke on Friday.

A new machine flown in from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has arrived at the site, Anshu Malik Halko, director at the state-run National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC), told Reuters.

“First we will take out the non-functional machine from inside and then we will deploy the new one. This will take time and I cannot comment on the timing. It is a delicate and dangerous operation,” Halko said.

Authorities have not said what caused the 4.5km tunnel to collapse, but the area is prone to landslides, earthquakes and flooding.

Reading: Indian workers remain trapped in a collapsed tunnel as rescue struggles

Fifty to sixty workers were on the night shift at the time of the collapse and those near the exit exited the tunnel on the national highway which is part of the Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage route.

Work was halted on Friday after a “large-scale cracking sound” was heard as rescue crews tried to restart the drilling machine, according to an NHIDC report.

Nearly 100 tunnel workers gathered at the site on Saturday, demanding faster progress in reaching and freeing those trapped.

Vishnu Sahu, a laborer who led the protest, said the rescue team is keeping the workers in the dark about the progress of the rescue.

“We want the top people in the company to come here,” Sahu said.