Appeal to pray for the evacuation of 41 workers trapped inside Uttarkashi tunnel as countrymen are praying for the World Cup’2023

While the entire nation is eagerly waiting to watch the Indian team’s victory in the World Cup praying anxiously and more than a lakh die hard cricket fans joining the Narendra Modi stadium to watch this most interesting match, appeals are being made in the social media platform X by Uttarakhand citizens not to forget the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara – Daandalpani tunnel in Uttarkashi for the last eight days and pray for them too. One of the proactive social activist and founder of SDC foundation Anoop Nautiyal has put a picture of his holding a play card inscribed in it : Let’s all pray for the safety and evacuation of the 41 trapped labourers in Uttarakhand tunnel. Nautiyal in an appeal also wrote on X : Prayers are powerful. As the nation prays & India battles Australia in the #Worldcupfinal2023 today, 41 men are battling for survival in a trapped tunnel in #Uttarkashi for the past 7 days. Let’s also have them in our thoughts & let’s all pray for their safety & early evacuation! There are several other such appeals in social media for these trapped labourers inside the tunnel whose relatives and family members are stay put near the tunnel having come from Jharkhand, Bihar amd other parts of the country. They are extremely angered and furious have raised slogans in protest at the site and accused the company and government administration for being negligent and apathetic not able to evacuate the trapped labourers despite 8 days having elapsed. Meanwhile, after the failure of the American Augur Machine to drill the hard Rocky debris and the machine going out of order two days ago a US micro tunneling expert namely Chris Cooper , a micro tunneling expert and a CE as well has arrived at the tunnel site on Saturday to meticulously monitor the entire rescue operation.

According to a Mint report Chris Cooper is a chartered engineer with a highly experienced track record for delivery of major International Key Civil Engineering infrastructure, Metro tunnels, large Coverns, Dams, Railways and Mining projects. Cooper is also a consultant for the over ambitious ongoing Rishikesh Karnprayag rail project and is currently at the incident site monitoring the rescue operation. Kindly recall that the entry of Cooper in the scene happened after all efforts of the NDRF, SDRF, BRO and the Company dealing with the Tunnel project failed and the American Augur machine too gave up with the drilling machine failed to drill after it broke out. The chief minister of Uttarakhand however has now assured to give all the facilities of stay, accommodation and food etc. to the families of the trapped workers but this could happen only after the news appeared in various channels about furious and angered relatives protesting and opposition leaders raising accusations against the company and the administration for lapse and negligence. However, the NDRF, SDRF and BRO are aggressively busy and doing their best to evacuate the trapped workers but had failed till now, despite their best efforts. After the matter highlighted in national dailies and TV news channels the central government machinery also came into action with the government holding a high level meeting to deliberate on various options meticulously bringing out those trapped inside the tunnel after into portion broke and tons of debris fell down blocking their passage. According to news reports several technical options have been explored in this meeting and the SDRF NDRF, BRO, NHIDCL ( company dealing with tunnel project) ONGC, SJVNL, THDC and RVNL have been assigned different responsibilities to work on these five options. The India Army is also coordinating in this exercise apart from other rescue agencies like NDRF, SDRF and BRO. It may be recalled that earlier the Cabinet committee on economic affairs shared by PM Narendra Modi has given its approval to the construction of 4.531 km long two-lane bi-directional Silkyara Bend- Barkot tunnel with escape passage including approaches on Dharasu Yamunotri section between chainage 25,400 km and chainage 51,000 km in Uttrakhand. Therefore, it is time to look at the PIB press note of the project W/Escape Passage while attention is rightly focused on rescuing 41 trapped labourers questions about why companies did not make escape tunnel should not be forgotten, wrote social activitist of Uttarakhand, Anoop Nautiyal on X.