<p>Silkyara: Indian rescuers drilled through rocks and debris on Tuesday to reach 41 workers trapped for 17 days in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas, and were set to pull them out one by one to safety, officials said.</p><p>The men, low-wage workers from India's poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5 km (3 mile) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov. 12.</p><p>The process of pulling them out, one at a time on wheeled stretchers through a pipe 90 cm (3 feet) wide, would take a couple of hours, officials said.</p><p>The evacuation pipe has to be pushed through and debris cleared before rescue workers can crawl through and begin getting the men out, they said.</p>.Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: What is rat-hole mining & how does it work?.<p>Dozens of rescue workers with ropes and ladders were lined up outside the tunnel and ambulances began arriving to take the 41 men to a hospital about 30 km away.</p><p>The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890- km network of roads.</p><p>Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.</p>
<p>Silkyara: Indian rescuers drilled through rocks and debris on Tuesday to reach 41 workers trapped for 17 days in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas, and were set to pull them out one by one to safety, officials said.</p><p>The men, low-wage workers from India's poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5 km (3 mile) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov. 12.</p><p>The process of pulling them out, one at a time on wheeled stretchers through a pipe 90 cm (3 feet) wide, would take a couple of hours, officials said.</p><p>The evacuation pipe has to be pushed through and debris cleared before rescue workers can crawl through and begin getting the men out, they said.</p>.Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: What is rat-hole mining & how does it work?.<p>Dozens of rescue workers with ropes and ladders were lined up outside the tunnel and ambulances began arriving to take the 41 men to a hospital about 30 km away.</p><p>The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890- km network of roads.</p><p>Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.</p>