Uttarkashi Tunnel accident, 40 laborers stranded for 55 hours

The stranded laborers are from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Teams of more than 200 people from National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, BRO and National Highways are working 24 hours.

NHIDCL Director Technical Atul Kumar said on Monday that while removing debris from the tunnel, soil is continuously sinking from above. This is causing problems in rescue. We have now planned to evacuate the workers through steel pipes.

Kumar said - To reach the workers, a steel pipe of 900 mm i.e. 35 inches diameter will be inserted inside the tunnel with the help of hydraulic jack and auger drilling machine. Machine and pipes have arrived. This operation may take 24 hours.

State Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Sinha said that the workers will be taken out of the tunnel by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Oxygen, food and water are being supplied to them through pipes. All workers are safe.

Most of the stranded laborers are from Jharkhand
According to State Disaster Management, 15 laborers from Jharkhand, 8 from Uttar Pradesh, 5 from Odisha, 4 from Bihar, 3 from West Bengal, 2 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Assam and one from Himachal Pradesh are included inside the tunnel. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, who came to see the rescue work, said – All the workers are safe, they have been contacted through walkie-talkie. Food and water are being delivered.

60 meter part of tunnel caved in due to lack of plaster
NDRF Assistant Commander Karamveer Singh said - This 4.5 kilometer long and 14 meter wide tunnel was plastered up to 200 meters from the starting point of the tunnel. There was no plaster beyond that, due to which this accident happened.

Committee formed to investigate the incident
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a high-level meeting on Tuesday regarding the rescue operation. Dhami said- We are taking every moment information about the rescue operation. The incident is also being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Ministry. The Uttarakhand government has formed a six-member committee to investigate the incident. The committee has also started the investigation today.

This tunnel is part of Chardham project
This tunnel is being built under the Char Dham Road Project. This tunnel, being prepared at a cost of Rs 853.79 crore, will be open in every season. This means that people will be able to move through it even during snowfall. After its construction, the distance between Uttarkashi and Yamunotri Dham will be reduced by 26 km.

Actually, Yamunotri Highway gets closed in Radi Top area during snowfall in winter. Due to which the three tehsil headquarters of Yamuna valley, Barkot, Purola and Mori, get cut off from the district headquarters Uttarkashi. To facilitate the Chardham Yatra and to get rid of the problem of snowfall in Radi Top, a plan was made to build a double lane tunnel here under the All Weather Road Project.