After almost three weeks of failed attempts to reach 41 stranded construction workers stuck in a collapsed tunnel almost 300 feet underground, rescuers have finally managed to pull off a miraculous rescue. Using only their bare hands and shovels, the rescuers pushed a 31-inch diameter pipe through the caved-in debris and successfully reached the trapped workers. All 41 workers were rescued by late evening.
The tunnel project is part of major infrastructure development near India’s contentious and disputed border with China in an effort to strengthen claims over this wild terrain that holds some of the world’s highest peaks. It is also part of a new network of roads, bridges, and tunnels connecting Hindu religious sites in northern India used as a way to boost votes ahead of next year’s election.
While reaching the trapped workers was a victory, the collapse of the tunnel is seen as another case of infrastructure shortcomings endangering the safety of construction workers. Environmentalists have long warned about hasty and invasive work in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem being ripe for disaster.
Narrow pipes of four and six inches were used to send food, medicines, oxygen, and even a video camera to maintain visual communication with the workers, who were trapped after a landslide tumbled onto the ongoing construction project on Nov. 12. All 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas for 17 days were rescued on Nov. 28.
The tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Char Dham Highway project connecting four Hindu holy sites in the mountainous state with bridges and flyovers, but the collapse of the tunnel brings to the forefront the need for more thorough planning and construction oversight.