[Watch] NDRF Team Enters Uttarkashi Tunnel With Oxygen Cylinders, Stretchers

New Delhi: The seemingly endless ordeal for 41 workers trapped inside a tunnel, which collapsed partially in Uttarkashi 10 days ago, should be over soon.

Efforts to evacuate the workers were intensified on Wednesday evening as a 21-member team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, carrying oxygen cylinders and stretchers on their backs, entered the Silkyara tunnel.

Watch a video clip posted by ANI:

According to India Today, an angle cutter with an abrasive blade on the pipe has been pushed inside after some metal rods obstructed the drilling process earlier on Wednesday.

The obstruction has been removed by the rescue agencies, and work to install pipeline for the final leg has resumed.

Thirty ambulances have been arranged at the spot to cater to emergency services, if needed, once the workers are brought out.

Of the 30 ambulances, there are 8 advanced life support ambulances and 22 BLS ambulances.

“We have been instructed to remain alert as rescue operation might be completed by night,” ambulance technical staff Bisan Singh Panwar told ANI.

“We have oxygen cylinders available in the ambulances. Once workers come out, their vital organs will be checked,” said Panwar.

Earlier in the day, two Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) remotely-operated vehicles were pressed into service in the massive rescue operation which is in its 11th day.