The labourers have been trapped in the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand for more than two weeks after a landslide caused the entrance of the tunnel to collapse and become blocked with a wall of concrete rubble, debris and metal.
The authorities had optimistically said last week that the rescue was just "hours away" after they managed to drill through 50 metres of debris, leaving only about 10 to 15 metres left of the blockage. However, the operation hit problems at the final stages.
The vast drilling machine, brought from the US, that had been horizontally penetrating the thick rubble broke down on Friday after it hit a metal obstruction, dealing a blow to hopes that rescue of the workers was imminent.
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