India jubilant as all trapped workers rescued from Himalayan tunnel

Indian rescuers were exhilarated at the successful completion of a complex rescue mission spanning 17 days on Tuesday (November 28) as they saved all 41 workers trapped in an under-construction tunnel that collapsed in India’s northern Uttarakhand state.

Uttarakhand chief of state, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and federal deputy minister for road transport and highways, V.K. Singh met with each of the rescued workers and rescue officials’ teams.

Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.

The Char Dham project has faced criticism from environmental experts and some work was halted after hundreds of houses were damaged by subsidence along the route.

The government has said it employed environmentally sound techniques to make geologically unstable stretches safer. It also ordered the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to audit 29 tunnels being built across India.

Families of the rescued tunnel workers celebrated the return of their loved ones on Tuesday (November 28), 17 days after an under-construction tunnel collapsed in India’s northern Uttarakhand state.

“We are celebrating Diwali today,” said Choudhraain, mother of one of the 41 rescued tunnel workers, whose family did not celebrate the festivity as they received the news of her son getting trapped on the day of Diwali, Hindu festival of lights.

The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890 km network of roads.

Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.