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.
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.
Microsoft's Indian-origin CEO Satya Nadella, in communication with employees, said the company will align its cost structure with revenue and customer demand.
Rat-hole mining may be illegal but the talent and experience of rat-hole miners were used in the rescue operation to save the 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel, a National Disaster Management Authority member said on Tuesday.
The owner and manager of Rituraj Hotel in Kolkata have been arrested following a devastating fire that killed 14 people. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered surprise checks of all establishments in the city to ensure fire safety compliance, after the tragedy highlighted serious violations at the hotel. The hotel has been sealed and special committees will be formed to monitor and identify establishments flouting fire safety norms.
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.
"Once he comes out, we will never allow him to work here again," a distraught Chaudhary said on Sunday, waiting for the rescue of his son, who has been stuck inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara along with 40 others for two weeks.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday said no progress has been made since Thursday in drilling through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand to rescue 41 trapped workers but assured that the drilling by auger machine will start soon.
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.
The notification issued by the Union Environment Ministry also exempts projects pertaining to the expansion of terminal buildings at airports (without an increase in the existing area of the airport) from seeking green nod.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami Wednesday met the workers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel and kept under medical observation at a hospital in Chinyalisaur and handed over Rs 1 lakh to each of them.
Snowfall and rain hit the Char Dham Yatra on Tuesday with thousands of pilgrims halted en route to Kedarnath and Yamunotri temples in the Garhwal Himalayas as a precautionary measure.
A senior Uttarakhand official at the site said drilling was complete.
Rescue operations to evacuate 41 workers trapped in the tunnel resumed on Thursday morning after an iron mesh that had come in the path of the auger machine drilling an escape path was removed.
Larger diameter pipes have also been inserted up to a length of 42 metres through the debris on Sunday morning to provide enough food and other essentials to the trapped workers, a control room set up at the site said.
The statue is the second of the four statues being built in the four directions across the country.
In yet another decision to please the priest community after withdrawing the Chardham Devasthanam Board Act, the Uttarakhand government has reconstituted the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee under a new head to manage the affairs of the two Himalayan shrines.
The restoration work of the Kedarnath shrine, which was destroyed in last year's floods, will be done by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The suspension of the Char Dham Yatra this year and its cancellation the next will be a huge blow to Uttarakhand's unorganised sector
Around 1,000 devotees will be allowed to visit Kedarnath shrine daily when its portals are opened on May 4, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said and sought to allay safety concerns of pilgrims.
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 ministry of tourism is less concerned about the impact of the floods on life and property, but is more focused on promoting tourism, says Swathi Seshadri. Anupam Chakravartty reports
Many low-lying areas in West Bengal's sub-Himalayan region were reeling from a flood-like situation while major rivers in Bihar were flowing above the danger level at several places as unabated heavy rain lashed the country's eastern parts on Sunday.
Drilling at the collapsed portion of the tunnel to rescue the trapped men was halted again on Friday night, in yet another setback to the multi-agency effort.
The sacred portals of Badrinath shrine in Garhwal Himalayas were reopened on Monday after a gap of six months amid chants of vedic hymns and elaborate rituals.
In the video, the workers, wearing yellow and white helmets, are seen receiving food items sent to them through the pipeline and talking to each other.
Security forces were put on high alert across the country with strict vigil being maintained around religious places and communally sensitive areas in the wake of the terrorist attack in Ayodhya on Tuesday morning.
The family members of 26 people from Madhya Pradesh, who were killed in the Uttarakhand accident, cannot believe that the pilgrimage met with a tragic end.
Bhandari, a three-term Congress legislator who was also a minister in the state in the past, joined the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders, including Union Minister Piyush Goyal and the party's national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam.
Sukhram, all of 22, reached his village at 1 am to a rousing welcome after staying trapped in the Silkyara tunnel for 17 days.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday visited the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel site for a review of the rescue operations being carried out there to evacuate 40 labourers trapped inside since Sunday morning following its partial collapse.
The Devasthanam Board was assigned the management of 51 temples of the state, including the four famous Himalayan shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said re-developed railway stations would become iconic structures and centres of economic activity.
A total of 86 metres have to be drilled vertically to prepare an escape passage. Pipes of 1.2 metres in diameter have to be laid vertically through the top of the tunnel on which work began on Sunday as a second option to reach the stranded labourers.
We need to have patience as it is a dangerous operation,NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said.
The auger machine was facing repeated obstructions in the rubble in the past few days.
'I feel numb with the trauma we have been going through ever since we first got the news. For close to two weeks, we have been hearing my child will be rescued today. That today never comes'
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