Jharkhand to airlift 15 workers rescued from Silkyara tunnel to Ranchi tomorrow

Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], November 30 (ANI): Fifteen labourers from Jharkhand who were rescued from Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi will be airlifted to Delhi on Thursday and from there to Ranchi on Friday morning.

They will fly to Ranchi from New Delhi as there is no direct flight between Dehradun with a sopover at Jharkhand Bhawan.

After medical screening of the labourers trapped in the tunnel accident in Uttarkashi is going on at AIIMS Rishikesh, all the labourers can be discharged very soon, after which all the labourers will be sent to their destination, a Jharkhand government official said while talking to ANI.

“15 labourers from Jharkhand would be sent to Delhi by 7.45 pm flight and then they would be made to stay at Jharkhand Bhawan for the night, after which they would be taken from Delhi to Ranchi by a morning flight the next day and will be dropped at their destination,” the Jharkhand official added.

The workers who were rescued from the Silkyara tunnel were brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh, for further medical examination on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, after the 41 trapped workers were brought out safely from the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, bringing to an end an ordeal that spanned over two weeks, their relieved kin on Wednesday celebrated ‘Igas Bagwal’ at the residence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in Dehradun.

‘Igas Bagwal’ is a popular festival in Uttarakhand, celebrated 11 days after Diwali.

While the festival was marked on Wednesday, the festivities for the loved ones of the trapped workers, who had been spending sleepless nights worrying over the fates, started on Tuesday itself following their safe rescue.

Family members and friends of the 41 workers, who were safely pulled out from a portion of the tunnel, that collapsed on November 12, burst into celebrations after word of their rescue reached them.

Many of them, who had been following the tense rescue operation on television over a couple of weeks, broke into unbridled joy and even burst crackers after their loved ones finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Significantly, the portion of the tunnel on the Silkyara side collapsed on the day of Diwali, November 12, confining them in the dark during the Festival of Lights. A part of the tunnel they were building gave way, blocking their only exit with more than 60 metres of broken rock, concrete and twisted metal.