Jharkhand govt team in Silkyara to enquire about workers trapped in collapsed tunnel

The Jharkhand government on Friday sent a team of officials to Silkyara to enquire about the wellbeing of workers from the state who are among the 40 labourers trapped in the collapsed part of an under-construction tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway. Of the 40 workers trapped inside the tunnel, 15 are from Jharkhand.

The Jharkhand government on Friday sent a team of officials to Silkyara to enquire about the wellbeing of workers from the state who are among the 40 labourers trapped in the collapsed part of an under-construction tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway. The three-member team led by IAS officer Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh spoke to Vishwajeet and Subodh -- two labourers from Jharkhand -- through a pipe and enquired about their wellbeing.

''The arrangements made for their care is satisfactory and rescue efforts are going on continuously,'' Singh told reporters after talking to the trapped workers. Of the 40 workers trapped inside the tunnel, 15 are from Jharkhand. The rest are from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam.

The workers got trapped after a portion of the Silkyara tunnel collapsed on Sunday.

An escape passage is being made by drilling through the debris with a powerful American 'auger machine' to safely bring the labourers out.