SILKYARA, India: Rescuers are trying to send cooked food and set up a phone connection to 41 workers trapped for eight days in a collapsed tunnel in the Indian Himalayas as they explore fresh rescue plans after previous attempts stalled, officials said on Monday.
The men have been stuck in the highway tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it caved in early on Nov. 12 and are safe, authorities said. They have access to light and supplies of oxygen, dry food, water and medicines are being sent via a pipe.
Authorities expect that a second, 6-inch pipeline being drilled into the debris for delivery of cooked food will soon be ready, with 42 meters out of an estimated 60 meters already completed, said Bhaskar Khulbe, officer on special duty for the tunnel project.
“Our priority is to save 41 lives who are trapped inside the tunnel. Through this (pipeline) we will be able to send necessary things to them,” federal Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters on Sunday.
Officials are also considering setting up an optical fiber connection through this pipeline, Gadkari added, which can be used insert a camera or phone connection into the tunnel to help workers speak to their families.
The men currently receive nuts, puffed rice, chickpeas and other dry food items via a pipe and the district chief medical officer R.C.S. Panwar said three of them have complained of dysentery.
Rescuers are exploring five new plans to pull out the workers after a machine drilling horizontally into the debris, to create space for the men to come out, developed a snag and a sudden “cracking sound” during efforts to restart it caused panic.
The new plans include drilling vertically from the top of the mountain, which rescuers hope can start by Tuesday as they await arrival of machinery, said Jasvant Kapoor, a general manager at state-run company SJVN, which is involved in the rescue efforts.
Authorities have not said what caused the 4.5-km tunnel to cave in, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
Fifty to 60 workers were on the overnight shift at the time of the collapse, and those near the exit got out of the tunnel on the national highway that is part of the Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage route.
Rescuers drill to send more food to trapped workers in Indian tunnel
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Rescuers drill to send more food to trapped workers in Indian tunnel
- The 41 workers have been stuck in the highway tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it caved in early on November 12
- Rescuers are exploring five new plans to pull out the workers after a machine drilling into the debris developed a snag
Trump calls for one year cap on credit card interest rates at 10 percent
- Trump says Americans have been ‘ripped off’ by credit card companies
- Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about rates
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was calling for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10 percent starting on January 20 but he did not provide details on how his plan will come to fruition or how he planned to make companies comply.
Trump also made the pledge during the campaign for the 2024 election that he won but analysts dismissed it at the time saying that such a step required congressional approval.
Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican Parties have raised concerns about high rates and have called for those to be addressed. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
There have been some legislative efforts in Congress to pursue such a proposal but they are yet to become law and in his post Trump did not offer explicit support to any specific bill.
Opposition lawmakers have criticized Trump, a Republican, for not having delivered on his campaign pledge.
“Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10 percent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without providing more details.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies,” Trump added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on details of the call from Trump, but said on social media without elaborating that the president was capping the rates.
Some major US banks and credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One Financial Corp, JPMorgan , Citigroup and Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, a fierce Trump critic, and Senator Josh Hawley, who belongs to Trump’s Republican Party, have previously introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent for five years. This bill explicitly directs credit card companies to limit rates as part of broader consumer relief legislation.
Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna have also introduced a House of Representatives bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, reflecting cross-aisle interest in addressing high rates.
Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump in the last elections, said the US president’s call was a “mistake.”
“This is a mistake,” Ackman wrote on X.
“Without being able to charge rates adequate enough to cover losses and earn an adequate return on equity, credit card lenders will cancel cards for millions of consumers who will have to turn to loan sharks for credit at rates higher than and on terms inferior to what they previously paid.”
Last year, the Trump administration moved to scrap a credit card late fee rule from the era of former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration had asked a federal court to throw out a regulation capping credit card late fees at $8, saying it agreed with business and banking groups that alleged the rule was illegal. A federal judge subsequently threw out the rule.
