Survival confirmed through endoscopy 9 days after the accident
“I take walks and do yoga whenever I have time in the midst of claustrophobia.”
Power supply structure with 90cm diameter iron pipe
A tunnel construction site in the Himalayas in northern India on the night of the 28th. When a man wearing a yellow hard hat revealed his face from a narrow steel pipe about 90cm in diameter, the rescuers and his family cheered, “Bharat Mata ki Jai (Long live Mother India)!” It was the moment when workers, who had been isolated when the ceiling collapsed during highway tunnel construction work, came out for the first time in 16 days. Starting with this man, all 41 workers trapped in the tunnel were rescued safely within an hour.
According to local media such as the Times of India, the ceiling near the entrance to the Silkiara Tunnel construction site in Uttarakhand, northern India, collapsed due to a landslide on the 12th. Workers who were working about 200 meters away from the tunnel entrance were trapped. Their survival was confirmed on the 21st, 9 days after the accident.
At that time, the rescue team successfully drilled a hole elsewhere near the entrance and inserted a medical endoscope camera through a 60-meter-thick pile of rubble. Fortunately, all the workers survived. The rescue team penetrated the pipe through this route to reach the isolated point of the workers and supplied them with oxygen, water, food, and medicine. Twelve doctors waited outside the tunnel and checked the workers’ condition. Despite hunger and fear of being shut down, the workers took walks and did yoga in their spare time to calm themselves.
The rescue team’s next operation was to push a steel pipe about 90cm in diameter into the 60m thick rubble. The plan was to let the workers go outside through this pipe. A large drill was used, but the drill kept breaking down due to the metal and stones in the rubble. With about 10 meters left behind where the workers were, we could not proceed any further. Eventually, starting on the 27th, six miners, in groups of three, took turns entering the iron pipe and removing the debris with a hand drill and their hands, as if digging a mouse hole. On the afternoon of the 28th, the iron pipe reached the workers.
“They were very happy when they found us,” one rescue worker said in an interview with local media. “There was even a crew member who hugged me,” he said. The 41 workers were immediately taken to a nearby hospital and are said to be in good health.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.