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The first images have emerged of the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India, after rescuers managed to feed a camera inside.

Rescuers have been providing food, drinking water and even oxygen through a small pipeline and now preparations are underway to start vertical drilling to pull them out.

Rescuers are drilling at five different points: the top, sides, front and back of the tunnel in the hopes of reaching the men ten days after a road tunnel under construction collapsed in the Himalayan foothills.

Colonel Deepak Patil of the Indian army is heading the rescue operations. Newsday spoke to him at the site of the rescue operation in the mountainous region where it is extremely difficult to get a clear mobile signal.

"The first lifeline... we have been sending light food to them since the day they were trapped. The second lifeline is to send them mobile phones once [we activate a WIFI signal] there. There are multiple teams trying to break through. A whole lot of people are here and... we will succeed."

(Pic: A handout image made available by the Information Department, Uttarkashi Government of India shows a trapped tunnel labourer in Uttarkashi, India; Credit: EPA)

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