THEY'RE COMING HOME

After a harrowing 17 days trapped inside a collapsed under-construction tunnel, 41 workers brought out to safety by a team of rescuers that made the impossible possible

- Amit Bathla

Forty-one workers emerged from the grim depths of a collapsed road tunnel in Uttarkashi on Tuesday evening, bringing the curtain down on a daring but painstaking operation that spanned 17 anxious days and multiple heartbreaks but eventually stood as a testament to the endurance of the human spirit, and the perseverance and skill of intrepid rescuers.

Twelve “rat-hole miners” burrowed through a wall of rock, mud and debris with hand-held tools in the final breakthrough on Tuesday, as the country heaved a collective sigh of relief. Hours later, disaster relief personnel pulled out the workers — exhausted and shaken but beaming, and in visibly good spirits — on wheeled stretchers through a 57-metre-long steel chute inserted into the cavernous tunnel between Silkyara and Barkot on a highway that is part of the Char Dham project.

Scenes of jubilation played out at the mouth of the tunnel that collapsed on November 12 as drained relatives of the trapped workers beamed, hugging their loved ones as they were wheeled out. The rescued men were welcomed as heroes with wild cheers and marigold garlands, as officials greeted them after 422 harrowing hours spent inside the tunnel.

“Finally, God heard us. My brother could be rescued. I am with him in an ambulance on the way to hospital,” said Sunil, a resident of Jharkhand, his voice choked with emotion.

The first worker was retrieved at 7.45pm, marking a success in the marathon first-of-its-kind operation where hopes of a rescue were repeatedly dashed due to the fresh collapse of debris and machine breakdown. But the relief personnel continued to make strenuous progress, refusing to be stymied by the cascading volley of challenges before them.

Union minister VK Singh and Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami welcomed the workers as National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) men brought them out.