Won't let him work here again: Tunnel worker's dad

"Once he comes out, we will never allow him to work here again," a distraught Chaudhary said on Sunday, waiting for the rescue of his son, who has been stuck inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara along with 40 others for two weeks.

Having lost his another son in an accident in Mumbai earlier, the farm labourer from Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh is now going through the terrible ordeal of waiting for the safe return of his second son.

"Manjeet is my only son left. If anything happens to him, how would my wife and I survive," he said amid the agonisingly slow progress of the rescue work.

Manjeet, 22, is among the 41 workers trapped inside after a portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route collapsed following a landslide on November 12.

Manjeet's father, who reached here a day after the tunnel collapse, spoke to him on Sunday through a communication channel set up by the authorities.

"My son looked fine. I am a bit stressed though due to the delay in the rescue work. Today I told him this is a war but he should not be scared. We will succeed soon," Chaudhary said.

"We are very poor and came here after taking a loan of Rs 9,000 against my wife's jewellery. Here, the administration gave me a jacket and shoes. They also repaid my loan," he said.

The administration has set up a camp for the kin of the trapped workers outside the tunnel. They are allowed to talk daily with the trapped workers.

The communication between the trapped workers and their relatives is facilitated by a communication system set up through a six-inch wide pipe.

Drilling to create an escape passage for the trapped workers got stalled after the auger machine went out of order on Friday. A plasma cutter from Hyderabad is being used to cut and remove the auger blades stuck in the rubble.

Rescuers have also set up equipments to carry out vertical drilling to reach the trapped workers.