How India rescued 41 trapped workers in 17 days

After almost 17 days of intense efforts by multiple agencies, the 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel were evacuated. The mission began when the labourers get trapped as portions of the Silkyara-Dandalgaon under-construction tunnel on the Brahmkhal-Yamunotri highway collapse following a landslide at around 5.30 am on the day of Diwali. Contact was established with the trapped workers through a pipe meant to supply oxygen to them and they were reported to be safe. NHIDCL began drilling for their rescue with a state-of-the-art auger machine, which was airlifted from Delhi to speed up the operation. However, the machine and another one brought later managed to drill 45 meters of the 57 meter stretch. The blades of the auger machine drilling through the rubble was stuck in the debris, forcing officials to consider switching to options that could drag on the rescue by several days, even weeks. However, In the end, rat-hole mining experts were called in to help with rescuers requiring to dig through horizontally around 10 metres of rubble. Rescue workers broke through the last stretch of the rubble at about 7 pm on November 12. NDRF and SDRF men entered the steel chute to reach the trapped workers and start bringing them out on wheeled-stretchers one by one. Soon, all 41 workers were rescued successfully.