DEHRADUN – Forty-one Indian workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for 10 days were seen alive on camera for the first time on Tuesday as workers tried to create new passageways to free them.

One of the proposed routes is almost half a kilometer long.

The men looked exhausted and fearful, sporting thick beards and looking at the endoscopic camera sent by rescuers through the thin tube that carries air, food and water.

“We’ll get you out safely, don’t worry,” rescuers can be heard saying to trapped helmet wearers gathering near the camera, video released by state authorities shows.

Excavators have been removing tons of earth, concrete and rubble from the tunnel under construction in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand since November 12 after part of the tunnel collapsed.

But rescue efforts were slow and hampered by falling debris and repeated failures of key heavy drilling equipment, requiring the Air Force to airlift new equipment twice.

‘HIGHEST PRIORITY’

Before the camera was introduced, rescuers had communicated with the men inside via radio.

“All workers are completely safe,” Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said in a statement. “We are trying with all our might to get them out safely soon.”

Dhami said he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the men, adding that Modi had told him that getting the workers out must be their “top priority.”

Engineers had been trying to drive a steel pipe just wide enough for the increasingly desperate men horizontally through at least 57 meters (187 feet) of earth and rock blocking their escape.

But the giant earth boring machine they were using encountered boulders that it couldn’t penetrate.

Drilling on that stretch was halted on Friday after a cracking noise triggered a “panic situation,” officials said.

COMPLEX OPERATIONS

Rescue teams are now preparing two new approaches to reach the men.

One of them drills a vertical shaft down from the forested hill above, forcing workers to drill an entirely new track to the top for the heavy equipment needed.

Officials estimated the planned vertical shaft would have to be 89 meters (291 feet) deep, a potentially complex excavation above the men in an area that has already collapsed.

The other, according to Indian media reports, is to approach from the other side of the road tunnel, which is a far longer route of more than 450 meters.

The pipe through which the men were supplied with supplies was successfully expanded on Monday with the installation of a 15 centimeter (six inch) pipe through which the camera was sent downward.

It is hoped a drone can also be sent out to assess the stability of the area where the men are trapped.

For the first time, hot meals were also delivered by the new management.

“We have sent 24 bottles of meals and bananas to the trapped workers,” top local official Abhishek Ruhela told AFP.

Experts warn of the impact of extensive construction work in Uttarakhand, where large parts of the state are prone to landslides.

The planned 4.5-kilometer-long tunnel is part of Modi’s infrastructure plans aimed at cutting travel times between some of the country’s most popular Hindu sites and improving access to strategic areas on the border with rival China.

Foreign experts were called in, including independent Australian disaster researcher Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association.

“These 41 men are coming home,” Dix told the Press Trust of India news agency. “When exactly? Not sure.”