‘Enough Food to Last 25 Days’: Rescued Worker Tells What It Was Like Inside the Uttarkashi Tunnel – News18

The whole nation was filled with joy after the 41 workers trapped inside Uttarkashi’s partially collapsed Silkyara tunnel were rescued on Tuesday night.

After the stuck auger machine was cut out from the tunnel, rat-miners got down to work and dug through the last stretch of the rubble, clearing the path for a 57-metre steel pipe to be pushed in for the workers.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami greeted the workers as they got out of the tunnel and expressed his joy on the success of the rescue operation.

Narrating the experience of being stuck inside the tunnel for 17 days, one of the workers, Akhilesh Singh, said, it was only after 18 hours that the people realised that they were stuck inside the tunnel.

Singh said that after the tunnel collapsed, according to their training, the workers opened a water pipe and once the water started falling, people on the outside realised that the workers were trapped inside.

Singh said that once the rescue team inserted the steel lifeline pipe through the rubble, food was sent to the workers throughout the day. To an extent that there is still enough food to last 25 days inside the tunnel, Singh was quoted as saying by NDTV.

However, another worker, Anil Bediya, recalled the difficulties they faced in the initial days. Bediya said that they survived the initial days by eating ‘muri’ (puffed rice) and licking water dripping from the rocks.

“Loud shrieks punctuated the air…We all thought we would be buried inside the tunnel and had lost all hope during the first couple of days,” the 22-year-old worker was quoted as saying by PTI.

A part of the under-construction Silkayara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarkashi collapsed on November 12, trapping 41 workers inside. Rescue operations involving multiple agencies — National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and other central/state agencies — were launched immediately after the collapse.

The auger machine, which was air-lifted to the site, encountered several hurdles leading to the operations halting multiple times. But in a breakthrough, a six-inch lifeline pipe was inserted in the tunnel on November 20, through which food and basic necessities were provided to them.

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Then on November 21, an endoscopic camera was sent inside the tunnel to check up on the trapped workers and the their first visuals from the tunnel emerged.

On November 25, the blades of the auger machine got stuck inside the debris after encountering metal hurdles. All the parts of the machine were later cut out using plasma cutters, which were flown in from DRDO Hyderabad. Meanwhile, vertical drilling was also started on November 26 as the auger machine was still being cut out from the debris.

Finally on November 27, rat-miners were called in to manually drill through the final stretch of the debris. This process was completed on Tuesday noon, after which the wielded steel pipe was pushed in through the cleared path. NDRF and SDRF officials, with the help of wheeled stretchers are ropes pulled out the workers one-by-one by Tuesday night.

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All the rescuers were lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their efforts throughout the operations. The prime minister, expressing his happiness, also said that the bravery of the workers — surviving inside the tunnel for 17 days — was inspiring for the nation.