The supervisor could be heard asking those trapped inside the tunnel to not worry and that they would be evacuated soon.
'The tunnel was dug up two km and the work was going on smoothly. I could have never imagined such an incident'
It was a highly emotional moment, with those gathered outside shouting slogans and the workers themselves welcomed by everyone present, as these photographs show.
Through this 6-inch alternative lifeline, hot khichdi was sent to the stranded workers for the first time since they were trapped.
'India has gone digital. They talk about the success of India's Chandrayaan mission but they cannot evacuate our people trapped for around a week'
Gabbar Singh Negi's house in the Lalpani area of the town suddenly came to life on Tuesday night as the news of the safe evacuation of 41 workers trapped at Sikyara tunnel reached his kin who had been glued to the TV set waiting the whole day for the good news.
A local traders' body has forced Muslim shopkeepers in Dharchula to down shutters and given a call for their ouster from the Uttarakhand town after two minor girls were allegedly lured by a couple of men from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
Three experts from Western Coal Fields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, camped at the Silkyara tunnel site from November 20.
Anil Bediya, one of the 41 labourers who were rescued from a collapsed Uttarakhand tunnel after 16 days, survived the ordeal by eating muri (puffed rice) and licking water dripping from rocks.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea seeking to prevent a 'mahapanchayat' called by Hindu outfits in Uttarakhand and registration of an FIR against hate speeches allegedly targeting members of a particular community.
Drilling at the collapsed Silkyara tunnel to rescue 41 men trapped inside for 12 days was halted again on Friday, officials said.
'These kinds of tunnels are not meant for the Himalayas.' 'Development should be good for all people and not where you make a tunnel and 40 people get trapped.'
'We humans may not have not created natural disasters, but we have definitely amplified their impact.'
Soon after being rescued, Vishal, a resident of Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, met his family members outside the tunnel and was then taken to a hospital in an ambulance.
Communal tension has been brewing in Purola and some other towns of Uttarkashi district after two men, one of them Muslim, allegedly tried to abduct a Hindu girl on May 26.
'It is a breathtaking journey towards the Tibet border, especially since the Border Road Organisation has accomplished a fabulous feat in black-topping the road till the border.' 'One is left with a salute for the dauntless Indian soldiers who spend the winter in these majestic, though inhospitable areas (we were told that the temperature comes down to minus 40 in winter),' recounts Claude Arpi.
All tunnels being constructed in Uttarakhand will be reviewed, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Thursday after drilling began at the Silkyara tunnel with a heavy duty machine to rescue 40 labourers trapped there for four days.
A high performance drilling machine was brought in Uttarkashi from Indore on Saturday to pierce through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route and was being assembled before it is deployed to resume drilling, officials at the site said.
After 16 days of intense efforts by multiple agencies, all 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi have safely been evacuated on Tuesday evening.
Manual horizontal digging will start soon in addition to the ongoing top-down drilling to rescue the 41 trapped workers in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, the NDMA said on Monday.
'I could not see my husband in the video...Whenever I get to see my husband, then only I can say he is safe'
As the last ambulance carrying one of the 41 labourers rescued from an under-construction road tunnel left the site in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district for a community health centre on Tuesday evening, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Union minister V K Singh went straight to a temple of local deity Baba Baukhnag to express their gratitude for his blessings.
It has been a week since 41 labourers got trapped inside an under-construction tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district after parts of the structure collapsed following a landslide last Sunday.
"On Friday night, four government officers, including an SDM, came and offered me a house in Dilshad Garden but I refused to accept it as they wanted me to shift on a temporary basis," Hassan said.
The advisory, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, also told private television channels to be sensitive in their reportage, especially while putting out headlines and videos of the rescue operations, considering the psychological status of family members of the trapped workers.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday said none of the 41 labourers rescued from an under-construction road tunnel in Uttarkashi district was in a critical condition.
The worker said there was a natural source of water in the tunnel but they had no clothes to change.
He further said that the "focus is on horizontal drilling" as rock formation has created challenges for vertical drilling.
Markets in Uttarakhand's Purola and neighbouring towns remained closed amid heavy police deployment on Thursday in protest against the imposition of prohibitory orders to prevent a 'mahapanchayat' that was scheduled to be held there over alleged incidents of 'love jihad'.
The police staged a flag march in the main market area of the town and appealed to people to maintain peace.
The 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel for the last 11 days are likely to be rescued in the next few hours or by tomorrow, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Thursday evening.
The chief minister briefed the prime minister about the rescue operations in detail and said all the trapped workers are safe with oxygen, nutritious food and water being constantly supplied to them.
Inching closer to their goal, rescuers have inserted wide pipes up to 45 metres through the rubble and will have to drill another around 12 metres to reach the 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara for 10 days, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
Feroze Qureshi and Monu Kumar, experts in the rat-hole mining technique, were the first to meet the 41 labourers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand after they cleared the last bit of the rubble inside the structure.
The leader of the 12-member team from Rockwell Enterprises, Wakeel Hassan, said he was approached for help by a company involved in the rescue operation four days ago. "The work got delayed while removing the portion of the auger from the rubble. We started at 3 pm on Monday and finished the work at 6 pm on Tuesday," Hassan said, adding, "We had said the work would be finished in 24 to 36 hours and that is what we did."
With just five metres left to achieve a breakthrough in digging through the rubble of the Silkyara tunnel, preparations got underway on Tuesday to rush the trapped workers to a hospital for immediate medical care following their rescue.
At the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, at least 12 experts have been called by Trenchless Engineering Services Private Limited and Navayuga Engineers Private limited for applying the rat-hole mining technique horizontally in the collapsed part of the main structure.
A plasma cutter was flown in from Hyderabad on Sunday to cut and remove parts of the auger machine stuck in the rubble inside the Silkyara tunnel where 41 labourers have been stranded for the last 14 days.
According to the victim's complaint to the police, some people belonging to the upper caste assaulted him at the temple, tied him up and singed him with burning sticks throughout the night.
Boring through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel was put on hold again on Thursday apparently after cracks appeared in the platform on which the drilling machine rests, in a fresh hurdle to the rescue of 41 workers trapped inside for 11 days.
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