<p> Uttarkashi: Working overnight with a powerful machine, rescue workers had by Friday morning drilled up to 21 metres through the rubble in Silkyara tunnel, inching closer to the 40 labourers trapped there for five days.</p>.<p> The workers need to drill up to 60 metres to insert 800 mm and 900 mm diameter pipes – one after the other -- with the help of a giant drill machine till an escape passage is created for the labourers stuck behind the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel, NHIDCL Director Anshu Manish Khalkho said.</p>.<p> The labourers have been trapped since Sunday morning when a part of the tunnel collapsed following a landslide.</p>.Four labourers including father-son duo die of asphyxiation while cleaning water tank in Gujarat.<p> "Drilling has been done up to 21 metres so far," the state emergency operation centre's control room in Silkyara said.</p>.<p> The stretch where debris is accumulated begins 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel at Silkyara side.</p>.<p> Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela said that the trapped workers are safe and being supplied with oxygen, medicines, and food and water through pipes.</p>.<p> Constant communication is being maintained with them to keep up their morale, he said.</p>
<p> Uttarkashi: Working overnight with a powerful machine, rescue workers had by Friday morning drilled up to 21 metres through the rubble in Silkyara tunnel, inching closer to the 40 labourers trapped there for five days.</p>.<p> The workers need to drill up to 60 metres to insert 800 mm and 900 mm diameter pipes – one after the other -- with the help of a giant drill machine till an escape passage is created for the labourers stuck behind the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel, NHIDCL Director Anshu Manish Khalkho said.</p>.<p> The labourers have been trapped since Sunday morning when a part of the tunnel collapsed following a landslide.</p>.Four labourers including father-son duo die of asphyxiation while cleaning water tank in Gujarat.<p> "Drilling has been done up to 21 metres so far," the state emergency operation centre's control room in Silkyara said.</p>.<p> The stretch where debris is accumulated begins 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel at Silkyara side.</p>.<p> Uttarkashi District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhela said that the trapped workers are safe and being supplied with oxygen, medicines, and food and water through pipes.</p>.<p> Constant communication is being maintained with them to keep up their morale, he said.</p>