DEHRADUN: At least 40 construction workers were trapped after the road tunnel they were building collapsed in northern India on Sunday, with rescuers scrambling to reach them beneath piles of debris.
The collapse occurred early Sunday morning in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand workers were moving out, and replacement workers were going in, according to AFP news agency.
Durgesh Rathodi, a state disaster response official, said that about 200 metres (218 yards) of the tunnel had collapsed. About forty to forty-one workers are trapped inside. Oxygen is being supplied through the debris, but more rubble is coming down as rescuers try to remove the obstruction.
The 4.5-kilometre tunnel is being constructed between Dandalgaon and Silkyara to connect two of the holiest Hindu shrines of Yamnotri and Uttarkashi.
Images released by the government rescue teams showed huge piles of concrete blocking the wide tunnel, with twisted metal bars on its broken roof poking down in front of the rubble.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami wrote on social media platform X that pray to God that those workers trapped inside are brought out safely.
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A local police officer said that they were “very optimistic” the workers would be rescued safely but added it was “difficult to say how long it will take”.
The tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favorite Char Dham Road Project, aimed at improving connectivity for some of the most popular Hindu shrines in the country, as well as areas bordering China.
Construction Sites Accidents in India
Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in the country.
In January, at least two hundred people were killed in flash floods in ecologically fragile Uttarakhand in a disaster that experts partly blamed on excessive development.
