LATEST NEWS: Ambulances on standby as Indian rescuers near 41 trapped workers

On Thursday morning, ambulances were on standby as Indian rescuers worked to clear the final meters of debris separating them from 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks.

 Emergency vehicles and a field hospital were prepared to receive the men once they are freed from the tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Engineers have been digging for days to drive a steel pipe through 57 meters of earth, concrete, and rubble that has kept the trapped men from freedom since a portion of the under-construction tunnel caved in on November 12^th .

Despite a slow progress, engineers with a powerful drilling machine made a sudden rapid advance on Wednesday, before being slowed with just 12 meters to go after metal rods blocked the route.