The first workers have been rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after being trapped for 17 days. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Union Minister of State for Road and Highway, General VK Singh, were present at the site of the rescue operation to greet the workers.
The Chief Minister garlanded and greeted the workers with sweets, expressing relief at their safe rescue. The first workers were successfully pulled out around 8 pm, and all the workers have now been evacuated from the tunnel.
The Chief Minister and General VK Singh are personally greeting each worker as they emerge from the tunnel. Each worker takes around five to seven minutes to be extracted from the tunnel, according to rescue officials.
In a remarkable turn of events, a banned mining practice called rat-hole mining came to the rescue of the trapped workers after high-tech machines failed during the operation. The manual drilling method proved to be effective, allowing the diggers to reach the workers who had been confined for 17 days. The workers are being evacuated one by one.
The extraction process is taking time to ensure that each worker can readjust to the surface conditions, with temperatures currently around 14 degrees Celsius.
Prior to the worker rescue, personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) descended into the tunnel to assess the workers’ conditions and guide them through the rescue protocols. Each worker was strapped to a stretcher and manually pulled up through 60 meters of rock and debris.
This successful rescue operation brings hope and relief to the trapped workers and their families, as well as to the entire community.
