INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Rescuers in India are just six or seven meters away from 41 men trapped in a collapsed highway tunnel in the Himalayas for more than two
weeks, and are confident of drilling through to reach them on Tuesday, officials said.The men, low-wage workers from India&s poorest states,
have been stuck in the 4.5 km tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov
12.So-called rat miners, brought in on Monday to drill through the rocks and gravel by hand after machinery failed, made good progress
overnight, officials said.&About 6 or 7 meters are left,& said Deepak Patil, a senior officer leading the rescue, adding that more than 50
meters of an estimated 60 meters of debris had been bored through, Reuters reported.&Sure, 100%,& he said when asked if the men could be
reached on Tuesday.The men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe but efforts to dig a tunnel to reach
and rescue them with drilling machines have been frustrated by a series of snags.Rescuers on Monday brought in the &rat miners&, experts at
a primitive, hazardous and controversial method used mostly to get at coal deposits through narrow passages
Their name comes from their resemblance to burrowing rats.The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi&s most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890- km network of roads.Authorities
have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.The post Indian rescuers say very close
to reaching 41 men trapped in tunnel first appeared on Ariana News.
