The group of 41 Indian workers who were trapped in a tunnel for 14 days are not expected to be rescued until around Christmas. This is despite rescue teams continuing to work to save the group trapped after the partial collapse at the construction site in northern India on October 12.
Last week, authorities assumed the victims would be rescued “soon.” However, after a huge excavator broke down, the forecasts became more pessimistic. According to Arnold Dix, a tunnel expert working with Indian officials, the rescue operation should not be completed until late December, closer to Christmas.
Last Thursday, for the first time since the collapse, it was possible to see how the workers were doing. A camera mounted on a thin tube already used to supply oxygen, food and water captured images showing workers exhausted and anxious. Communication with firefighters and family members takes place via radio.
A camera has captured the first video of the 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The workers have been trapped since November 12 after a landslide caused part of the tunnel to collapse. pic.twitter.com/G6jrwDx2d1
– BBC News India (@BBCIndia) November 21, 2023
The collapsed part of the 4.5 kilometer long tunnel is about 200 meters from the entrance. Last week, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who visited the accident site, wrote on the social media site
“The positive side is that the workers are not on top of each other and have a buffer space of about 400 meters to walk and breathe,” another person in charge of the rescue services, Devendra Patwal, assured the Indian Express newspaper.
The collapse occurred on November 12 in the Himalayan region, when a group of workers left the shipyard and a replacement team arrived.
The tunnel is part of the Chardham Highway, a flagship project of the Indian federal government under construction between Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect the two important Hindu shrines of Uttarkashi and Yamnotri in Uttarakhand, a mountainous state that attracts many pilgrims and tourists.
Source: DN
