CM Yogi Adityanath meets eight workers hailing from UP rescued from Silkyara tunnel
Dec 01, 2023
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 1 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday met eight workers who were among the 41 safely rescued from the partially collapsed Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarakhand.
The UP CM greeted the labourers by offering them shawls and gifts. UP CM hailed the efforts of the Central and state governments in rescuing the 41 labourers who were trapped in the tunnel.
Sharing a post on X, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wrote, "It is the result of the tireless efforts of the Central and Uttarakhand governments that all the workers are safe with their families. Heartfelt gratitude to the respected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji on behalf of the people of the state and heartfelt thanks to the Honorable Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami Ji".
The eight workers arrived in Lucknow on Friday morning via road from AIIMS Rishikesh. All 41 workers who were trapped inside Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel since November 12 were evacuated safely on November 28. After being kept under medical observation for a night at the community health centre at Chinyalisaur, they were airlifted on Wednesday to AIIMS, Rishikesh.
Meanwhile, five workers hailing from Bihar were also among the 41 workers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel. They received a rousing welcome at the Patna airport on Friday and were welcomed with flowers and bouquets by Labour Minister Surendra Ram.
Fifteen labourers hailing from Jharkhand were airlifted to Delhi from AIIMS Rishikesh on Thursday and from there to Ranchi this morning.
Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also met all the rescued workers at Chinyalisaur Hospital and said that the workers have been completely examined and are healthy.
"I have just met everyone and everyone is healthy and all of their family members are happy. They have been fully examined and there is no health problem as such," said Dhami.
Expressing happiness at their safe rescue after the 17-day-long rescue operation, one of the rescued labourers, Vishwajeet Kumar Verma from Jharkhand, said that he had full faith that he would be rescued and would see the outside world again.
"I am very happy and safe. All the other trapped labourers are also safe. Now, we are in the hospital. The debris had fallen at the beginning of the tunnel and I was on the other side. The road of about two and a half kilometres was empty. We used to roam around inside the tunnel to spend our time. There was a little fear in the beginning, but as we got food and water and talked to our families, our morale kept going higher and higher. We had full faith that very soon we would see the outside world," Vishwajeet said.
As the trapped workers were safely rescued from the Silkyara tunnel on November 28, their family members in different parts of the country burst into joy and celebrated the moment by bursting crackers and sharing sweets.
On November 12, a section of the tunnel between 205 and 260 metres from the Silkyara side collapsed. 41 workers who were beyond the 260-metre mark were trapped, with their exit blocked. After huge efforts of different rescue teams and 16 days of the rescue operations, all 41 labourers were safely evacuated on November 28.
