In northern India, rescue workers are drilling through debris to reach 40 workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for nearly a week.
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00:00 Rescue crews in northern India have drilled a third of the way through debris in a collapsed tunnel to reach 40 construction workers who have been trapped for nearly a week.
00:10 They still have 40 meters to go before reaching the workers.
00:13 An advanced drill was flown in from New Delhi to speed up their efforts, which have been hampered by falling debris.
00:19 So the effort is on to remove that debris and there is a challenge because again you know from the ceiling a lot of debris is coming down again and effort is being made to put through a steel pipe to reach the workers and retrieve them from that steel pipe.
00:36 Emergency crews have sent food, water, oxygen and medicine through a small pipe to the trapped workers, some of whom have reported fever, headaches and nausea.
00:47 Outside the tunnel entrance, protesters gathered, angered by the delays, finding little consolation in official reassurances that those trapped would soon be freed.
00:57 If there was work in safety, there would be no accident. There is no safety, we are trapped, we are trapped by the workers.
01:04 There is a lack of management, there is a lack of company, there is a lack of management. Why are the Biharis coming here?
01:10 The tunnel is part of a government highway project meant to improve connectivity in a popular place for religious pilgrimage.
01:17 But the project has been riddled with safety and environmental concerns.
01:21 It runs through a landslide prone area near the Himalayas where heavy rains have caused severe infrastructure damage.
01:28 Officials plan to investigate what went wrong, but for now, their efforts remain on rescuing the trapped workers.
01:35 James Lin and Tiffany Wong for Taiwan Plus.
01:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]