Rescue work to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in India’s Uttarakhand state has been delayed again because of a problem with the drilling machine.
Bhaskar Khulbe, a former advisor to the prime minister’s office actively involved in the rescue operations, told the media that the platform supporting the drilling machine had weakened, requiring an entire night of repairs throughout Thursday.
The machine is drilling a hole into a 60m (197ft) debris wall that is preventing the workers from escaping the tunnel.
Authorities have been working to send multiple pipes of differing widths through the debris to create a micro-tunnel through which the workers can be brought out.
The operation was stalled on Wednesday too after workers encountered a thick metal rod which had to be cut using gas cutters.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Response Force, said it was “difficult to put a timeline on such a complex operation”.
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