“I am very relieved and happy that 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel collapse have been rescued”Tuesday, November 28, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Indian rescue teams announced that they had rescued people who had been trapped for 17 days. The Minister praised the coordinated efforts that made this possible “one of the most important rescue operations in recent years”.

The rescued people wore celebratory orange wreaths and were greeted by state officials, according to government photos.

The crowd applauded as they emerged from the tunnel while emergency vehicles, with lights on, prepared to leave the entrance to the site, where workers have been trapped since the partial collapse of a building under construction in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on November 12. .

The workers' family members who were waiting to finally see them confirmed that the exhausted men had been carried out of the tunnel, pulled through a 57-meter-long steel pipe on stretchers equipped with special wheels.

Press agency Indian Trust Press had indicated earlier in the day that the first man had been defeated. “The ongoing rescue operation has been successful. Preparations have been made to evacuate workers safely.”said Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, Tuesday (28 November).

Rescue teams have installed the final section of pipe to free 41 workers trapped since November 12 in an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in northern India, the local government said.

The workers were in an area inside the tunnel, measuring 8.5 meters high and about two kilometers long.

Rescuers removed debris by hand

Teams of three took turns digging and inserting the final section of steel tube, wide enough to allow one person to pass through and allow the workers to evacuate.

When someone is digging, a second person removes the debris by hand and a third person loads it into a cart until it reaches the exit, Rajput Rai, a drilling expert, explained on Tuesday, quoted by the agency. Indian Trust Press. They also had to cut through metal bars that were blocking their progress.

Photos of the rescue team, posted on social media, showed the men smiling and making victory signs as drilling finished through tons of dirt, concrete and debris blocking workers.

The people were able to survive for more than two weeks thanks to the delivery of air, food, water and electricity through a tube through which the endoscopic camera was inserted. These cameras allowed their families to see them last week, for the first time since the tunnel collapsed.

Stretches equipped with wheels were planned to remove exhausted people, via a 57-meter-long steel pipe and ambulances waiting for them.

Consecutive damage

Since the tunnel collapse, rescue efforts have been complicated and slowed by falling debris and damage to drills, machines vital to rescuing workers.

Another vertical drill hole also started from a wooded hilltop overlooking the tunnel, a complex excavation operation above workers in an area that had already experienced collapse.

The Silkyara Tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cherished Char Dham highway project, designed to improve connections with four of the country's most important Hindu sites and also with China's border regions.