40 workers trapped in tunnel collapse ‘alive’, rescuers say

The 40 Indian workers trapped since Sunday November 12 in the collapse of a road tunnel under construction in northern India “are alive”said a rescue official in a statement. “We sent them water and food”, he added. The collapse occurred early Sunday morning in the Indian Himalayas as a group of workers left the construction site and a replacement crew arrived. The 4.5 km long tunnel is being constructed between Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect the two important Hindu shrines of Uttarkashi and Yamnotri.

A complex rescue operation

The first contact with the survivors was made through a message transmitted on a piece of paper, but the rescuers then managed to establish communication using radio devices. Rescuers said they injected oxygen into the collapsed area of ​​the tunnel. According to the rescue manager, the excavators have cleared around 20 m of rubble but the workers are 40 m further away.

Rescuing the workers promises to be complex. “Due to the abundance of rubble in the tunnel, we are facing certain difficulties in the rescue operation”, according to this same source. A machine capable of inserting a 90 cm wide steel tube through the rubble, in the hope that workers can squeeze through it and extract themselves from the tunnel, is expected at the site by Monday evening.