A team of "rat-hole miners" began manual drilling operations yesterday to reach the 41 workers trapped within the debris of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi as rescue ops entered Day 17.
Uttarakhand Tunnel Rescue Operation: 41 trapped workers finally got a ray of hope on Tuesday as rescue workers drilled through the 60-metre stretch of debris that blocked their way out of Silkyara tunnel.
The rescue operation, now in its 16th day, has faced numerous challenges. Initially employing a soft-cutting machine, the efforts progressed to the use of an American auger machine for drilling through the collapsed portion of the tunnel.