After a true race against time and… In a complex operation, 41 workers trapped for 17 days in a tunnel that collapsed in northern India were rescued. under the happy gaze of family and officials.

The workers became trapped on November 12 after part of the tunnel they were building in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed.

Some relatives of the rescued, who were waiting to see them on the spot after more than two weeks, confirmed that the men, exhausted, They left the tunnel via a 57 meter long steel tube, on wheeled stretchers.

“I feel totally relieved and happy about the successful rescue of the 41 Silkyara tunnel workers,” Indian Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a statement.

The success was the result of “the coordinated efforts of numerous agencies during one of the largest rescue operations in recent years,” he added.

Seeing the light of day again, The rescued were received with garlands of flowers and by government representatives, amid the cheers of the crowd. as a cohort of ambulances waited for them with their lights flashing.

During the day, rescue teams managed to install the last piece of pipe that allowed the 41 workers to be removed.

Photos posted by rescuers on social media showed men smiling and making victory signs as they completed drilling through the tons of earth, concrete and rubble blocking the workers.

Gathered villagers and locals watch as officials try to rescue the 41 men trapped in the under-construction Silkyara tunnel that collapsed in Uttarkashi district. They all got out alive. Photo: AFP

As night fell and as they waited for the first man to be rescued, the worker families could not hide their relief.

After numerous setbacks, military engineers and miners manually dug their way through the rocks and rubble to the tunnel, taking turns in teams of three.

As one was digging, another removed the debris by hand and the third placed it on a cart to remove it, Rajput Rai, a drilling expert, explained on Tuesday, quoted by the Press Trust of India agency.

Consecutive failures

Since the tunnel collapsed, rescue efforts have been hampered and delayed by falling debris and successive failures of the drilling rigs crucial to rescuing the workers.

Rescue teams also began digging a vertical shaft from the top of the hill where the tunnel is located, a complex operation in an area that has already collapsed.

The men survived these 17 days thanks to a tube that gave them oxygen and food and water. Last week, a camera was also introduced through that line, allowing their families to see them in the tunnel.

The workers were trapped in an area in the tunnel that was 8.5 meters high and about two kilometers long.

The Silkyara Tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Char Dham Expressway project, designed to improve connectivity to four of the country’s major Hindu places of worship and to regions bordering China. (JO)