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Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: Anxious wait for kin of trapped labourers
It was a Diwali of anxious wait for the families of 40 workers who were trapped inside an under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand after a portion of it collapsed on Sunday.
It was a Diwali of anxious wait for the families of 40 workers who were trapped inside an under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand after a portion of it collapsed on Sunday.
“I don’t know what would happen to us if anything untoward happens to my son,” said the mother of Dhiren Nayak, a resident of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha who is among the five workers from the eastern state trapped inside the tunnel. “There is no work for him here [in Odisha]. So, he had gone out to earn a livelihood so that our house can be repaired.”
Maheswar Nayak, whose son Bisweswar Nayak had accompanied their relatives Dhiren and Raju Nayak to Uttarakhand six months back looking for work, spent his Diwali night glued to the television screen, anxiously waiting for any news about their well-being. “We breathed a sigh of relief today [Monday] morning when news flashed that all the workers were fine,” Maheswar said.
He last spoke to Bisweswar, a father of six-year-old twin daughters, on Sunday morning. “I did not know about him being trapped till I watched the news on TV. I tried calling him up on his mobile, but it was switched off,” Maheswar said.
Tapan Mandal and Bhagaban Batra of Nabarangpur are the other two workers from Odisha who trapped inside the tunnel, which is part of the Char Dham all-weather road project.
“Deeply concerned to know that several workers including workers from Odisha have been trapped following collapse of an under-construction tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. Praying for the safe and speedy rescue of all the workers,” chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.
Manas Kumar Dandapat, the BDO from Bangiriposi in Mayurbhanj, said he was in constant touch with the state labour department on the safety of the labourers from the district. “I am keeping the families informed on hourly basis on the pace of the rescue operation,” he added.
Of the 40 workers trapped inside the 4.5-km-long tunnel being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway, 15 are from Jharkhand, five from Odisha and four from Bihar. The remaining 16 workers include eight from Uttar Pradesh, three from West Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam, and one from Himachal Pradesh.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren said a three-member team was being sent to the hill state to coordinate in the ongoing rescue operation.
“Around 40 people, including few from Jharkhand, are said to have been stuck in tunnel collapse in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand. A three-member team is being sent to Uttarakhand to help the workers from state,” Soren said in a post in Hindi on X, formerly twitter.
While the Jharkhand labour department refused to share the details of workers from the state trapped inside the tunnel, officials in the migrants’ control room said they have been able to verify identify of 13 workers. They, too, refused to divulge the details of the workers. “We are counselling the family members to prevent them from panic,” an official said, requesting anonymity.
The four workers from Bihar who are trapped inside the tunnel have been identified as Mohammad Sabah Ahmad from Peur village in Bhojpur district, Birendra Kishku from Tetaria village in Banka district, Sonu Shah and Sushil Kumar Vishwakarma, according to a list of the trapped workers shared by the state authorities.
“We will not leave hope till we see something. Miracles do happen,” Sushma Hembram, the mother of Birendra Kishku, who worked as a Poclain operator at the tunnel project site, said. “I am holding prayers regularly.”
State authorities said chief minister Nitish Kumar has expressed his concern over the Uttarakhand incident. “We are trying to identify those trapped in Uttarakhand and police will reach the concern family members to assist [in] needful help,” Jitendra Singh Gangwar, Bihar additional director general (ADG), police headquarters, said.
