December 16, 2023
- 41 workers were trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on November 12. A landslide caused the tunnel, which was under construction, to collapse, partially obstructing the tunnel’s entrance.
- The tunnel is part of the Char Dham project, which aims to enhance connectivity to four important Hindu pilgrimage sites in the region via a two-lane highway.
- Various drilling techniques including vertical drilling from the top of the tunnel, horizontal drilling and rat-hole mining were used to free the workers.
- Food, medicines and other supplies were sent to the workers through pipelines drilled through the tunnel debris.
- Numerous government teams including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), international scientists, army officials and locals were involved in the rescue operation. Arnold Dix, an Australian tunneling expert, played a crucial role in the operation.
- After a rescue mission that lasted 17 days, the workers were successfully freed on November 28.
- All the rescued workers were reported to be safe.
- The incident calls for the reassessment of construction methods and better planning of projects in geologically unstable zones.
Image Source: wikipedia.org
