Uttarakhand tunnel rescue Nov 28: Top developments

PM Narendra Modi has spoken with worker who were rescued from Silkyara tunnel on Tuesday. India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting posted photos of the interaction on X.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has expressed happiness over the rescue of workers from the Silkyara tunnel.

"The safe return of the labor brothers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel of Uttarkashi is a very happy news. My heartiest congratulations to them and their families. The safety of our labor brothers who are building India is of paramount importance. I salute all the brave men who made this difficult campaign successful," he said on X in a post made in Hindi.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has expressed happiness over the rescue of workers from the Silkyara tunnel.

"The safe return of the labor brothers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel of Uttarkashi is a very happy news. My heartiest congratulations to them and their families. The safety of our labor brothers who are building India is of paramount importance. I salute all the brave men who made this difficult campaign successful," he said on X.

Relatives of Manjit, a worker who was rescued from Silkyara tunnel celebrated with firecrackers in Lakhimpur Kheri village in north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and congratulated him on successful rescue operation.

CM Dhami interacted with media shortly after all workers were rescued successfully. He said that no one among the workers was critical but everyone will be kept under medical supervision.

"They (workers) all have come out from a different environment and condition so we will do as per the advice of the doctors...first they will be kept under medical supervision, their monitoring will be done...no one is critical," he said.

Uttarakhand tunnel rescue: The efforts to rescue the workers were going on for last 16 days.

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All 41 workers who were trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand have now been successfully rescued.

Ambulances were seen leaving from the Silkyara tunnel site as 35 workers among the 41 workers were successfully rescued from inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. 

The officials have successfully brought out 33 among the 41 workers who were trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand since November 12.

20 trapped workers have now been successfully brought out Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand.

CM Pushkar Singh Dhami met the workers who were minutes before rescued from inside the Silkyara tunnel.

A rescue team member, confirming to PTI, said, "Seven workers have been taken out, and the rest of them will be rescued soon."

Five workers who have been inside Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel since November 12 have been rescued successfully. All the other labourers are present in the safety tunnel inside the Silkyara tunnel.

As per initial media reports, two trapped workers have been rescued successfully from 
Silkyara tunnel. 

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, taking to X, wrote, "There has been a great success in the ongoing rescue operation in the Silkyara Tunnel, the work of pipe pushing has been done across the debris. Now preparations have been started to evacuate the workers safely." 

The rescue operation to save the trapped workers inside Silkyara Tunnel ended successfully and the workers will be out anytime soon. 

A worker involved in the rescue operation stated, "The rescue work has been completed and the trapped workers will start coming out in the next 15-20 minutes. NDRF teams will pull out the workers now. It will take around half an hour to rescue all the 41 trapped workers. There are no hurdles now..."

A Chinook helicopter, which is a twin-rotor heavy-lift chopper, has been stationed by the Indian Air Force at the airstrip in Uttarakhand's Chinyalisaur, where they have set up an emergency medical centre for treating the 41 workers who remain trapped underground in the Silkyara tunnel.
 

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami departed to reach the site of the Silkyara tunnel rescue.

Here is the list of workers trapped in the tunnel from the last 17 days.

1.            Gabbar Singh Negi         Uttarakhand

2.            Saba Ahmed                    Bihar

3.            Sonu Sah                          Bihar

4.            Manir Talukdar               West Bengal

5.            Sevik Pakhera                 West Bengal

6.            Akhilesh Kumar              Uttar Pradesh

7.            Jaydev Parmanik             West Bengal

8.            Virendra Kiskoo               Bihar

9.            Tapan Mandal                 Odisha

10.          Sushil Kumar                   Bihar

11.          Viswajit Kumar                Jharkhand

12.          Subodh Kumar                Jharkhand

13.          Bhagwan Batra               Odisha

14.          Ankit                                  Uttar Pradesh

15.          Ram Milan                       Uttar Pradesh

16.          Satya Dev                         Uttar Pradesh

17.          Santosh                             Uttar Pradesh

18.          Jai prakash                        Uttar Pradesh

19.          Ram Sundar                      Uttar Pradesh

20.          Manjit                                Uttar pradesh

21.          Anil Bedia                          Jharkhand

22.          Rajendra Bedia                 Jharkhand

23.          Sukram                               Jharkhand

24.          Tinku Sardar                      Jharkhand

25.          Gunodhar                          Jharkhand

26.          Ranjeet                              Jharkhand

27.          Ravindra                            Jharkhand

28.          Sameer                              Jharkhand

29.          Viseshar Naik                   Odisha

30.          Raju Naik                           Odisha

31.          Mahadev                          Jharkhand

32.          Bhukttu Murmu              Jharkhand

33.          Dhiren                              Odisha

34.          Jamra Oraon                   Jharkhand

35.          Vijay Horo                       Jharkhand

36.          Ganapati                        Jharkhand

37.          Sanjay                             Assam

38.          Ram Prasad                   Assam

39.          Vishal                             Himachal Pradesh

40.          Pushkar                          Uttarakhand

Just a few hours from now, rescue workers will reach the 41 construction workers who have been trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the Indian state of Uttarakhand for the last 16 days. Here's a look at the timeline so far...Read more

Talking to ANI, NDMA member Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd.), said that "...According to me, it will take the entire night to complete this operation..."

With the nail-biting Silkyara tunnel rescue underway, the National Highways Authority of India launches audit of "all tunnels".

In a statement to the press, the NDMA said that all security, safety precautions are being taken for workers trapped inside Silkyara tunnel and for those engaged in rescue operations.
 

As per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) rescue of the 41 trapped workers will take another 3 to 4 hours.

"It will take 3-4 hours to evacuate workers from Silkyara tunnel after breakthrough is achieved".

Talking to the press, NDMA member Lieutenant General (Retd.) Syed Ata Hasnain, Member, said that the trapped miners can reportedly "hear noises" of the ongoing rescue work.

Chinook helicopter of the Indian Air Force is present at Chinyalisaur airstrip. The aircraft is on standby and will be used to airlift the workers after their rescue from the Silkyara tunnel.

As per news agency ANI, a temporary medical facility has been set up inside the tunnel to facilitate the rescue of the 41 workers trapped underground for two weeks,

Officials say they are on the verge of rescuing the 41 workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in India's Uttarkashi.

The workers are set to be pulled out through a passageway that has been made using welded pipes which rescuers have pushed through dirt and rocks.

"Soon all the labourers brothers will be taken out," said Pushkar Singh Dhami, a top official on the social media platform X.
 

The kins of trapped workers have arrived at the entrance of the tunnel. Union minister Gen VK Singh, Uttarakhand CM PS Dhami are also present inside the tunnel. Oxygen cylinders have been sent, along with mattresses and clothes. Rescue expected any moment now. 

Central and state disaster relief and rescue teams arrive at the entrance of the Uttarakhand Tunnel, as the operation to rescue 41 trapped workers enters the final leg.

'Jai mata di, Jai shri ram' chants raised as rescue operations near breakthrough point. 

Uttarkashi tunnel rescue | Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami arrives at the site of Silkyara tunnel rescue.

"The work of laying pipes in the tunnel to take out the workers has been completed. Soon all the labor brothers will be taken out," announced CM PS Dhami of Uttarakhand.

Drilling work has been done, although rescue operation might still take 1-2 hours to be completed. Two ambulances have been rushed inside the tunnel. Around 40 ambulances are on standby outside the tunnel.

Beacon of optimism for the 41 trapped workers in Uttarakhand tunnel as local authorities repair roads leading to the rescue site. The workers will be taken to hospitals or their homes after being rescued, says Uttarakhand chief minister.

An ambulance enters the Uttarakhand tunnel, where efforts are on to rescue 41 workers.

Heavy police deployment is being observed outside the tunnel. Paramedics are on standby. Air ambulance has also been deployed. Earlier, workers were seen carrying mattresses inside the tunnel. Experts say we should expect major breakthrough within hours now.

"We are still mining. We have got a couple of more metres to go...We are expecting to see some results by 5pm IST. 2-3 metres are left," says micro tunnelling expert Chris Cooper.

International tunnel expert Arnold Dix joins a priest in praying for safety of the 41 workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel.

With just three metres left to achieve a breakthrough in digging through the rubble of the Silkyara tunnel, preparations got underway on Tuesday to rush the trapped workers to a hospital for immediate medical care following their rescue.

A separate ward comprising 41 oxygen-supported beds has been readied at the community health centre in Chinyalisaur, about 30 km from Silkyara, for the workers.

The term ‘rat-hole’ refers to a narrow pit dug into the ground. Generally, this technique is used in Northeastern states of India to extract coal from narrow, horizontal seams.

These ‘rat holes’ are large enough to allow one person to move in and extract coal.

In a similar manner, experts in Uttarakhand are digging narrow ‘rat holes’ to manually extract the rubble from pipe. These rat holes can be dug both vertically and horizontally. 

Rat-hole mining is broadly classified into two categories: Side-cutting procedure and box-cutting.

“In the side-cutting procedure, narrow tunnels are dug on the hill slopes and workers go inside until they find the coal seam. The coal seam in hills of Meghalaya is very thin, less than 2 m in most cases,” OP Singh, professor of environmental studies at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Box-cutting involves digging a vertical rectangular pit first, 100 to 400 feet deep, and then digging horizontally as and when required to better reach the coal seam.

Read in detail here.

International tunnelling expert Arnold Dix said trappers workers are playing cricket inside as the rescue ops drag on. "I just feel good. The drilling on top of the mountain is coming along perfectly, in the tunnel, it's coming along very well. I have never said 'I feel good' before. I might have heard they (trapped workers) are playing cricket," he said.

Watch:

VIDEO | "I just feel good. The drilling on top of the mountain is coming along perfectly, in the tunnel, it's coming along very well. I have never said 'I feel good' before. I might have heard they (trapped workers) are playing cricket," says international tunnelling expert… pic.twitter.com/rg1LLKCG43

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 28, 2023

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CM Pushkar Singh Dhami says, “Almost 52 metres has been done (pipe inserted). It is expected that there will be a breakthrough around 57 metres. 1 metre of the piple was pushed in before me, if 2 metres more of it is pushed in it will be around 54 metres in. After that, one more pipe will be used in…Earlier steel girders were found (during drilling), this has reduced now. Right now, we are finding more of concrete, it is being cut with cutter.”

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami arrives at Silkyara tunnel where the operation to rescue 41 trapped workers is underway.

Horizontal drill (Silkyara end): 51.5m (57-60m to be achieved)

Vertical drill (hill top): 36m (86 to be achieved)

The first visuals of the Rat-hole mining experts carrying out manual drilling through the rubble came out on Tuesday (Nov 28).

Micro tunnelling expert Chris Cooper told ANI, "...It went very well last night. We have crossed 50 metres. It's now about 5-6 metres to go...We didn't have any obstacles last night. It is looking very positive..."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the government and all the agencies together are leaving no stone unturned to evacuate the workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel for the last two weeks and that people should pray for them to get out safely and as soon as possible.

He said that "we should remember the men, trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel, in our prayers for their speedy evacuation."

"Today when we are praying to Gods and Goddesses and talking about the welfare of humanity, we also have to give place in our prayers to those labourers who are stuck in a tunnel in Uttarakhand for the last two weeks," PM Modi said.

Addressing a press conference, NHIDCL Mahmood Ahmad said, "The work of vertical drilling is also going on which is being executed by SJVNL. As of now, vertical drilling of 36 meters has been completed. We have to drill 50 meters more. We will take all actions, and we hope that we move forward quickly."

Neeraj Khairwal, Secretary, Uttarakhand Government, said that timelines for the drilling operations in totality cannot be assumed.

"After taking out the part of Auger that was struck inside the tunnel was taken out. 1.9 meters that was cut, in that, the first 220 mm was pushed, and was taken out. There was concern that it may not be pushed, but now we won't have to go on an alternate method. Then again 500 mm was pushed. Rat miners pushed that part," the official said.

"A time limit cannot be said, but let's hope and pray that minimum obstacles occur and we will be able to do this quickly," he added.