In a bid to keep the 41 trapped workers connected with their family members, a landline facility has been set up at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, officials said on Saturday.

The telephone facility has been set up 200 metre away from the collapsed tunnel site by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to enable the trapped workers to connect with their family members.

A handset will be given to the workers trapped inside the partially collapsed tunnel for the past 13 days, the officials further said.

Read here: Auger machine’s parts stuck, tunnel blocked’; official explains rescue hurdles

“We have set up a telephone exchange. We will give them a phone connected with the line via the pipe being used for sending food. This phone will have incoming and outgoing facilities. They can talk to their family,” DGM, BSNL, Rakesh Chaudhary said to news agency PTI.

At present, the communication between the workers and their relatives is facilitated by a six-inch wide pipe, where an endoscopic camera was also pushed through the pipe to allow rescue workers and relatives of the trapped men to see the condition inside.

Meanwhile, the rescue operation of the trapped workers will take longer than expected as the heavy drill machine – called the Auger machine – hit an obstacle and went out of commission, senior officials said on Saturday.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also said that a plasma cutter is being airlifted from Hyderabad to cut the auger machine that got stuck in the debris and got damaged.

Read here: Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: What is a plasma cutter?

Due to the obstacles, no progress has been made over the last 24 hours, while the manual drilling will begin after the stuck parts of the Auger machine are removed.

The workers have been trapped inside the tunnel since November 12.

(With inputs from agencies)