The 41 workers inside a collapsed road tunnel have been seen alive for the first time amid attempts to create new passageways to free them
\nNew Delhi
\nThe first images of 41 men trapped for 10 days in a highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas have emerged, showing them standing in a confined space and communicating with rescue workers.
\nA 30-second video provided by authorities on Tuesday showed about a dozen of the trapped men standing in a semi-circle in front of the endoscopic camera, wearing helmets and construction worker jackets over their clothes against the backdrop of the lights in the tunnel
\nThe men looked exhausted and anxious, some with thick beards, while a rescue worker outside could be heard telling them to present themselves one by one to confirm their identities on the walkie-talkie gear that had been sent in.
\n\u201cWe will bring you out safely, do not worry,\u201d rescuers can be heard telling the men as they gather near the camera.
\nThe video was shot through a medical endoscopy camera that was pushed through a second, wider pipeline of 15cm (6 inches) in diameter, drilled through the debris on Monday, authorities said.
\nBefore the camera was introduced, rescuers had been communicating with the men inside using radios.
\nRescuers are set on Tuesday to resume drilling horizontally through a 60-metre (195-ft) pile of debris to push through a pipe large enough for the trapped men to crawl out.
\nDrilling had been suspended on Friday after a machine snag and fears of a fresh collapse.
\nAuthorities are simultaneously working on five other plans to pull out the workers, including drilling vertically from the top of the mountain.
\nAbhishek Sharma, a psychiatrist sent to the site by the state government, said he had asked the 41 men to walk within the 2km (1.2-mile) area where they are confined, do light yoga exercises and talk regularly among themselves to keep occupied.
\n\u201cSleep is very important for them \u2026 and as of now they have been sleeping well and not reported any difficulties in sleeping,\u201d Sharma told Reuters, adding that the men were in good spirits and keen to emerge soon.
\nAnother doctor at the site, Prem Pokhriyal, said the men had been asked to avoid heavy workouts that could boost the accumulation of carbon dioxide gas in the confined space as they breathe out.
\nThe trapped men are low-wage workers, most of them from poor states in India\u2019s north and east.
\n\u201cHe said he is doing fine,\u201d Sunita Hembrom, the sister-in-law of one of the workers trapped in the tunnel, Surendra Kisko, told reporters after she spoke to him.
\n\u201cHe said, \u2018Take care of yourselves, the children and parents. Just tell us what they are doing to get us out of here.\u2019\u201d
\nExperts have warned about the effects of extensive construction in Uttarakhand, where large parts of the state are prone to landslides.
\nThe planned tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s infrastructure plans aimed at cutting travel times between some of the most popular Hindu sites in the country, as well as improving access to strategic areas bordering rival China.
\nForeign experts have been drafted in, including Australian independent disaster investigator Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.
\n\u201cThose 41 men are coming home,\u201d Dix told the Press Trust of India news agency. \u201cExactly when? Not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 41 workers inside a collapsed road tunnel have been seen alive for the first time amid attempts to create new passageways to free them New Delhi The first images of 41 men trapped for 10 days in a highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas have emerged, showing them standing in a confined space and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-369538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n