Saturday, 25 November 2023 | PNS | UTTARKASHI
In latest news from Uttarakhand, with the nation impatiently waiting for the safe evacuation of the 41 labourers remaining trapped in a partially collapsed tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarakashi since November 12, those engaged in the rescue operation asserted that the evacuation operation would be successfully accomplished if the teams are able to insert another pipe into the escape channel. Speaking on the matter, the director general of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Atul Karwal said that the last pipe to be pushed through the escape channel is being welded now and if no fresh obstacle comes up, the operation would be completed by this evening. He further said that the NDRF personnel would first study the health condition of the long-stranded workers after they get out of the tunnel and then they would be put on the wheeled stretchers being kept stationed outside. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a telephonic conversation with the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and taken stock of the rescue operation and its progress. Informing this, the CM said that he had updated the PM on the medical contingency plan the State government has firmed up for the physical and psychological wellbeing of the stranded workers. Amid hope of the workers being rescued out of the tunnel soon, the Union minister V K Singh and the CM Dhami reached Silkyara again and entered the tunnel to oversee the latest status of the rescue work. The former advisor to the Prime Minister Bhaskar Khulbe said that the operation might take 12 to 14 hours more.
