This is the best summary I could come up with:

The labourers became trapped after a suspected landslide in the early hours of 12 November caused part of the tunnel roof to collapse and become blocked by more than 60 metres of dense concrete rubble, rock and twisted metal.

By late last week, a large mechanical drill managed to get through almost 50 metres of rubble, prompting authorities to proclaim a rescue would happen “within hours” and several politicians rushed to the scene.

Rat hole mining – a primitive method of extracting coal through very small tunnels – is outlawed in India as several people have died while doing it, but the practice remains common in some states.

An “escape passage” pipe was inserted, enabling the rescuers – carrying wheeled stretchers and oxygen cylinders – to enter and finally reach those inside.

The tunnel is part of the $1.5bn (£1.2bn) Char Dham highway, one of Modi’s most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through a 550-mile network of roads.

The project has faced criticism from environmental experts, who have alleged it is will lead to subsidence and disturbance of the fragile Himalayan region, which is already prone to landslides and earthquakes

The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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That’s funny. We would never call someone doing specialized work like digging a tunnel through a mountain just laborers in the US.

Edit: and it’s very funny that wildcat miners are the ones that saved them