In a race against time, rescue teams have picked up the pace in their efforts to save 41 workers trapped for over two weeks in the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi after it collapsed on November 12. ✅️

On Sunday, rescuers began drilling vertically into the hill above the tunnel, reaching a depth of nearly 30 metres, according to latest reports

Micro tunnelling expert Chris Cooper said the debris of the busted American auger drilling machine has been removed. He also said 30 metres of vertical drilling has been done.

"All the debris (of the Auger machine) removed...(Manual drilling) will probably start after 3 hours. We have 9 metres of hand tunnelling to do. It really depends on how the ground behaves, Cooper said.

"It could be quickly, could be a bit longer. If we hit some lattice girder, then we've got to cut out the lattice girder, but we're confident we can get through.. The Army is just supervising (the operation). 30 metres of (vertical drilling) has been done," he said.