Produced by: Bhoomika Aggarwal Designed by: Manoj Kumar
After the harrowing wait of 17 days, 41 workers have been rescued safely from the Uttarkashi Tunnel which collapsed on Nov. 12 at around 05:30am lST.
Here are the first visuals from the ground zero, as the brave workers have been evacuated from Uttarkashi Tunnel. They will keep under observation for around 40 hours as they had been away from natural sunlight, resources, and air while they were being provided with food and water with the help of pipes throughout the rescue operation.
41 ambulances had been deployed at the site. It took the workers in a makeshift health centre around the tunnel for first-aid and then took them to AIIMS Rishikesh for thorough medical check-up. In addition to this, 2 helicopters are on stand-by.
All the workers were taken to hospital in the ambulances.
Family members of trapped workers are carrying blankets and warm clothes, India Today reported.
PM Narendra Modi wrote on X (Twitter), "The success of the rescue operation of our labor brothers in Uttarkashi is making everyone emotional. I want to say to the friends who were trapped in the tunnel that your courage and patience is inspiring everyone. I wish you all well and good health."
Professor Arnold Dix is an Australia-based underground expert and President of the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association. Dix's efforts in enhancing fire safety in tunnels have been recognised as groundbreaking. Under his supervision, the workers dug out a tunnel and then engaged into rat-hole mining
The rescue operation had been challenging from the beginning. The multiple-agency led rescue efforts was to rescue workers through horizontal drilling with the expertise of international tunnelling experts. However, earlier on Friday, the rescue operation to drill a stretch of 60 metres, was halted when auger machine blades broke down.
This was followed by vertical mining. A vertical drill had been boring into the ground and an 800-mm pipe has been inserted to bring out the trapped workers.
Rat-hole mining is a primitive, officially banned method of coal extraction. When all the other efforts to rescue the trapped workers failed, the experts did rat-hole mining. Uttarakhand government’s nodal officer Neeraj Khairwal made it clear that the men brought to the site were not rat-hole miners but people who are experts in the technique, as per PTI
This outlawed practice of rat-hole mining, which has previously led to deaths of workers due to asphyxiation, came to the rescue of the trapped workers in Uttarkashi tunnel. Due to lack of space inside the tunnel, this outlawed practice had to be used to make inroads inside the tunnel.