Silkayara Tunnel collapse: Essential items delivered to stranded workers, ‘will free all one by one’, an official claims

A team from the National and State Disaster Response Force was able to establish audio communication with the 41 workers who were trapped in a 60-meter stretch on the Silkyara side of the tunnel, according to Uttarakhand Secretary and Nodal Officer for the Silkayara rescue operation, Neeraj Khairwal, on Wednesday. Rescuers were also able to insert a microphone and speaker into the tunnel. The official updated a group of doctors, who also spoke with the workers and asked about their health, about the workers’ state of health. “They received the medications that they required.”

He also said that rescuers successfully delivered essential items like medicines, clothes, food and other items to the trapped workers, adding that cooked food, clothes including undergarments, toothbrushes and towels has been sent through a 6-inch pipeline in sufficient quantity.

“Some people were suffering from stomach upsets,” he said.
“A microphone and speaker have been sent through a wire in the pipeline to the labourers trapped inside the tunnel. The teams of NDRF and SDRF have also continued audio communication with the labourers,” the official said.

“The workers are very happy about the progress of the rescue operation and quite positive,” Khairwal stated, expressing hope that each trapped worker would be released one at a time. On November 12, while a tunnel was being built from Silkyara to Barkot, it collapsed, trapping 41 workers because of a muck fall that happened in a 60-meter section on the Silkyara side of the tunnel.

A total of five agencies–Oil and Natual Gas Corporation (ONGC), Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDCL)– have been assigned specific responsibilities to evacuate the 41 labourers who have been trapped in the 2-km-built portion of the under-construction structure.