Union highway minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said that rescuers would in the next “two to two-and-a-half days” be able to reach the 41 labourers trapped in an Uttarkashi mountain tunnel since November 12 morning.

However, Bhaskar Khulbe, part of a team sent by the Prime Minister’s Office to help handle the crisis, said it would take five days to bring the labourers out.

A relative of a trapped labourer said the distraught man had told him the food being supplied inside the tunnel through water pipes was inadequate and that he was “hungry” and all the victims had breathing problems because of insufficient oxygen. The trapped men have been communicating with relatives through the pipes.

Sources in the state government indicated a change of strategy, saying that drilling — so far done from the mouth of the tunnel and through the debris — would now be done from two fresh points, one vertically and the other perpendicular to the length of the tunnel.

“We have been trying our best for the last seven or eight days to save the workers. Bringing them out is our priority,” Gadkari said after visiting the site of the under-construction tunnel, a part of which has collapsed blocking the lone exit.

“We are discussing the crisis with many agencies of the Government of India and are working on six options,” he added.

“The obstruction (within the debris) created by a rock has been cleared and the team has restarted pushing (steel Hume) pipes through the debris. We would be able to reach the workers in two or two-and-a-half days if the auger machine continues working properly.”

But Khulbe, former adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and officer-on-special duty, Uttarakhand tourism department, told reporters in Uttarkashi town: “We need five more days. We have alternative plans as well. There are at least five spots from where drilling has been planned.”

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who had accompanied Gadkari to the spot, suggested that the condition of the trapped labourers might be worsening.

“I pray to God that the workers are saved because their problem is increasing with each passing day,” Dhami said.

A 60-metre stretch of the tunnel, near village Silkyara off the Yamunotri Highway, caved in following a landslide at 5.30am on November 12. Rescue efforts have been on since then but have faced one hitch after another.

The rescuers say they are using two water pipes drilled through the debris to supply the trapped men with oxygen, small packs of dry fruits, gram, jaggery, glucose and vitamin tablets for their physical survival and antidepressant medicines for their mental health.

Khulbe, said to be the organiser of tourism and religion-related development projects in Uttarakhand on behalf of the Prime Minister, said the mountain would be drilled “horizontally, vertically and perpendicularly”.

The tunnel is part of the Centre’s Char Dham all-weather road project to connect and promote pilgrimage to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

Food woes

Deepak Kumar Patel, 20, a trapped labourer from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, told his uncle Krishna Patel on Sunday that he was very hungry and that the food being supplied to the workers in the tunnel was not enough.

“Deepak told me that he and many others would die of hunger and panic if they were not rescued soon. He said he was very hungry,” Krishna told reporters, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“He told me that they had received about 1kg of almonds in the name of food on Saturday. They are also facing breathing problems as there is insufficient oxygen in the area where they are trapped.”

Fresh drilling

Sources in the state government said two fresh spots had been identified for drilling and the Border Road Organisation had begun constructing roads for the heavy auger drill machines to reach the sites.

“One of the spots is 500 metres from the mouth of the tunnel in village Silkyara, for which the road was completed this morning,” an officer of the state disaster management authority said on Sunday, requesting anonymity.

“The trapped labourers are 103 metres from there. The second point is 2,500 metres from the mouth of the tunnel, and perpendicular drilling will be done from there after the construction of the road is completed tonight to take the drill machine there.”