"41 laborers trapped in Uttarakhand tunnel for 170 hours, rescue will take 4-5 more days": Official

It has been more than 170 hours since 41 laborers were trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel of Uttarakhand and all efforts to bring them out have failed so far.

The rescue team is working hard to rescue 41 laborers trapped under the debris. Due to being stuck in the tunnel for a long time, there has been serious concern about the health of the workers. Rescue team officials will today try to make a vertical hole from the top of the hill with a drill, through which sufficient food can be supplied inside the collapsed tunnel and talks can be held with the workers.

After the high performance drilling machine procured from Indore, Madhya Pradesh was brought to the site, the work of making the platform to start vertical drilling was started on Saturday evening itself.

Bhaskar Khulbe, former advisor to the Prime Minister, said, "Experts agreed that instead of working on just one scheme, we should work together on five schemes to reach the stranded workers as soon as possible."

Khulbe said that due to the concerted efforts of the agencies, there is a possibility of the workers being rescued in four-five days. He said, "But if God blesses it, it can happen earlier also."

According to sources, the Center also held a high-level meeting to rescue the workers from the tunnel, where five options to rescue the workers were discussed with several agencies assigned to work on them. NHIDCL MD Mahmood Ahmed has been appointed in-charge for coordination with all central agencies.

Amidst all this, the wait of the families for their loved ones to come out of the tunnel is very painful. The families of the workers say that their voices are now becoming weak.

Doctors also stressed the need for large-scale rehabilitation of the stranded workers, fearing that being stuck in the tunnel for a long time could cause both mental and physical distress.

41 laborers are stranded after a part of the tunnel caved in on the morning of 12th November. Officials said all the workers are safe and they are being given food and water through steel pipes drilled in holes. The under-construction tunnel is part of the ambitious Char Dham project, a national infrastructure initiative to enhance connectivity to the Hindu pilgrimage sites of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.