Indian rescuers drill in two directions for 41 trapped men

SILKYARA TUNNEL: Indian rescue teams cleared rubble with excavators and dug tunnels Wednesday to clear a path for long metal tubes -- the hoped-for escape route for dozens of workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for 11 days.

Teams are drilling in two directions in a bid to dig a rescue shaft nearly half a kilometre (over a quarter of a mile) long to reach the 41 increasingly desperate men.

Excavators have been removing tonnes of earth, concrete and rubble from the under-construction tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand since November 12, when a portion of the tunnel collapsed.

But rescue efforts have been slow, complicated by falling debris as well as repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy-drilling machines, with the air force having to twice airlift in new kit.

An AFP journalist at the site on Wednesday said the site was busy with excavators and heavy trucks that were bringing in tubes the width of a man to the entrance of the tunnel.

The tubes are designed to create a safe exit route as drilling through the debris pushes forward horizontally towards the men.

At least 57 metres (187 feet) of earth and rock still divide the men from freedom, but engineers have been trying to drive a steel pipe through that, just wide enough to fit the men.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday spoke of the "positive progress made in the last 24 hours", without further details.

The workers were seen alive for the first time on Tuesday, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity are being delivered.

While trapped, they also have plenty of space, with the area inside some 8.5 metres (28 feet) high, and stretching some two kilometres (1.2 miles) in length.