{"id":84318,"date":"2023-11-28T16:59:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T14:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=84318"},"modified":"2023-11-28T16:59:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T14:59:28","slug":"indian-rescuers-hit-snags-in-a-two-week-bid-to-free-41-tunnel-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/indian-rescuers-hit-snags-in-a-two-week-bid-to-free-41-tunnel-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian rescuers hit snags in a two-week bid to free 41 tunnel workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Neelam Rahim | <a href=\"mailto:neelam@radioislam.co.za\">neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n<p>3-minute read<br \/>\n28 November 2023 | 16:56 CAT<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_84319\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-84319\" data-attachment-id=\"84319\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/indian-rescuers-hit-snags-in-a-two-week-bid-to-free-41-tunnel-workers\/india-accident-construction\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4111236-1646770683.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"300,200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;AFP&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Rescue personnel move a digging machine during rescue operation for workers trapped in the Silkyara under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India&#039;s Uttarakhand state on November 25, 2023. Indian rescuers brought in a new digging machine on November 25 to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks, after previous effort hit snags just metres from breaking through. (Photo by Arun SANKAR \/ AFP)&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1700870400&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;INDIA-ACCIDENT-CONSTRUCTION&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"INDIA-ACCIDENT-CONSTRUCTION\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Rescue personnel move a digging machine during rescue operation for workers trapped in the Silkyara under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India&amp;#8217;s Uttarakhand state on November 25, 2023. Indian rescuers brought in a new digging machine on November 25 to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks, after previous effort hit snags just metres from breaking through. (Photo by Arun SANKAR \/ AFP)&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4111236-1646770683.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-84319\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4111236-1646770683.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-84319\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rescue personnel move a digging machine during rescue operation for workers trapped in the Silkyara under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India&#8217;s Uttarakhand state on November 25, 2023.(Photo by Arun SANKAR \/ AFP)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Indian rescuers have brought in a new manual digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped Inside a collapsed road runner for two weeks after efforts through another route hit snags just meters from reaching the men.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest setback in frantic attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, engineers driving a metal pipe through 57 metres of rock and concrete ran into metal rods and construction vehicles buried in the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Just 9m from breaking through, drilling with a giant earth-boring machine has stalled while using gas-cutting tools to remove thick metal girders inside the confined pipe \u2014 just wide enough for a man to crawl through \u2014 is tricky.<\/p>\n<p>Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said the main drilling machine was broken, and work was ongoing to remove it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe machine has broken. It\u2019s irreparable. It is disrupted,\u201d he told reporters at the tunnel site.<\/p>\n<p>Rescue efforts have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris and repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy drilling machines, with the Air Force having to airlift new kit twice.<\/p>\n<p>Ambulances are on standby, and a field hospital has been prepared to receive the men trapped since a portion of the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand caved in on November 12.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the full <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/upload#:~:text=https%3A\/\/soundcloud.com\/radioislam\/indian%2Drescuers%2Dhit%2Dsnags%2Din%2Da%2Dtwo%2Dweek%2Dbid%2Dto%2Dfree%2D41%2Dtunnel%2Dworkers%3Fsi%3Da8d614db8cd44052adc27ac8abb0164e%26utm_source%3Dclipboard%26utm_medium%3Dtext%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial_sharing\">interview<\/a> on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 28 November 2023 | 16:56 CAT Indian rescuers have brought in a new manual digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped Inside a collapsed road runner for two weeks after efforts through another route hit snags just meters from reaching the men. In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4111236-1646770683.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-lVY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 21:52:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}