Rescuers from India Extract All 41 Workers Trapped in Tunnel

On Tuesday, 41 construction workers who had been stuck in a collapsed mountain tunnel in northern India for more than two weeks were freed, capping up an arduous rescue operation that had engulfed the nation for days.

Smiling workers started to emerge from the tunnel entrance, and locals, families, and government officials burst into jubilation, setting off firecrackers and shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” which is Hindi for “Long live mother India.”

As the audience applauded, officials placed flower garlands around the necks of the first workers to be rescued.

The country’s minister of roads and highways, Nitin Gadkari, expressed his relief and happiness in a video uploaded on the social media platform X after all of the workers were freed from the Silkyara Tunnel in the northern Indian town of Uttarkashi after a 17-day ordeal.

One of the biggest rescue efforts in recent memory, this was a well-coordinated effort by several authorities, Mr. Gadkari stated.

Early on November 12, the tunnel collapsed, however, nobody was killed or critically injured. They were able to survive by getting food and oxygen through tiny steel conduits.

Speaking on behalf of the state administration, Kirti Panwar stated that roughly twelve men had spent the entire night digging by hand through boulders and rubble. They then took turns using hand-held drilling tools to remove the mud in what they believed to be the last stages of the rescue operation.

Because Uttarakhand is a mountainous state, the drilling machine broke down catastrophically on Friday while drilling horizontally from the front. Rescuers had to resort to manual digging.

The machine penetrated roughly 47 meters (154 feet) of the roughly 57–60 meters (187–196 feet) that were required before rescuers began working by hand to carve out a path to free the trapped workers.

Tuesday night, as dusk descended, relatives of those stranded underground gathered close to the accident scene, tensely awaiting news of their loved ones’ rescue from the tunnel.

Many of their families have made the trip to the site, where they have set up camp for several days in the hopes of receiving updates on the rescue operation and seeing their loved ones soon.

After forcing the stranded workers to survive for days on dry food sent through a smaller pipe, authorities have now begun providing hot meals through a 6 in (15 cm) pipe.

A separate line is providing them with oxygen, and over a dozen medical professionals, including psychiatrists, have been on-site to keep an eye on their condition.

The tunnel that the construction crew was constructing was intended to be a component of the Chardham all-weather route, which will link several Hindu pilgrimage locations.

To remove the workers onto wheeled stretchers, rescue teams had dug out sections and welded pipes together. The 41 laborers were extracted safely from the collapsing tunnel beneath the Himalayas.