After repeated attempts, on Tuesday a pipe wide enough for the trapped men to crawl out has been installed to evacuate the 41 low-wage construction workers trapped in a 4.5km tunnel in the India’s Uttarakhand state.

Rescue workers drilled manually through the debris as the mountainous terrain in Uttarakhand has proved a challenge to the high-powered drilling machines.

Multiple high tech drilling machines have been damaged last weeks.

The trapped workers have been getting cooked food via a lifeline pipe that was pushed through to ensure a steady supply of essential goods. More than a dozen doctors, including psychiatrists, have been at the site, talking to the men through the pipe and monitoring their health.

The workers have been trapped since November 12th, when a landslide caused a portion of the tunnel, they were building to collapse about 200m from the entrance.

The tunnel which did not have an emergency exit is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, that would connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890- km network of roads.

Environmental experts have often criticized the project.

Aljazeera.