A brief story about the Silkyara Tunnel Rescue Operation
4.5 km Silkyara tunnel is the part of the 890-km-long Char Dham project which aims to provide all weather connectivity to Yamunotri through two-lane paved roads. It will reduce travel distance between Uttarkashi and Yamunotri town by 26 km. On Sunday, 12 November 2023 the tunnel caved in due to a landslide nearby and 41 workers got trapped inside it. A big rescue operation had been launched by drilling through the 60 m blockage of rock and metal debris to create space for a pipe as a horizontal exit passage through which the workers could crawl out of the tunnel. An American auger drilling machine was airlifted by IAF aircraft on Wednesday night, 15 Nov. It started boring through the rubble and pushing a six-metre-long steel pipe of 900 mm diameter into the debris on Thursday afternoon. Later, another pipe was welded to it to push it further in. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi district on Thursday, 23 Nov and spoke to the 41 construction workers trapped