Rescue workers have finally managed to pull out all 41 workers who were trapped in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel in a rescue operation that was hanging on hope and despair for almost 17 days.
After the workers were rescued, Union Minister V K Singh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami welcomed the workers as the National Disaster Response Force brought them out with the help of a steel chute that lined an almost 60-metre passage.
An ambulance with a few workers left the mouth of the tunnel around 8 pm, almost an hour after a group of rat-hole mining experts took out the last stretch of rubble. As the operation ended, there were hugging, and cheers, and some people outside the tunnel chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Har Har Mahadev”. Ambulances took the workers to a nearby community health center where a special ward for the rescued workers had been set up.
Before they were taken to the community health center, they were given a quick medical checkup as they came out of the steel pipe. CM Dhami commented that there was no worker in critical condition. However, laborers will be under medical observation for some time before being sent to their homes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the efforts of the workers on X. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he saluted the trapped workers for facing such a difficult situation for such a long duration.
The only remaining challenge in the rescue operation was tackled by a group of rat-hole mining experts, which involved extracting small amounts of coal by going down narrow burrows. They were brought in to carry out manual digging after a huge Auger boring machine got stuck in the passage, which had been dug to about 47 meters.
