“All forty workers trapped inside the tunnel are alive,” said Karamveer Singh Bhandari, top commander of the National Disaster Response Force in a statement, Monday (November 13). “We sent them water and food,” he added.
The collapse occurred early Sunday morning in the state of Uttarakhand, south of the Himalayas, at the time of relief.
“About 200 meters of the tunnel collapsed,” Durgesh Rathodi, an emergency services official, who visited the site, told Agence France-Presse. “Forty or forty-one workers are trapped inside. Oxygen is being supplied through the debris, but more rubble falls as rescuers try to clear the obstruction. »
The 4.5 kilometer Silkyara Bend-Barkot Tunnel is being constructed to facilitate the connection between two important Hindu shrines, Yamunotri Temple and Uttarkashi Temple. Photos released by rescue teams showed huge concrete blocks blocking the tunnel, with twisted metal bars on the roof protruding from the rubble.
“Pray to God that the workers stuck inside the tunnel come out safely,” Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in India.
