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Rescuers in India on Tuesday finally brought out safely the 41 construction workers who had been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas, Northern India after a 17-day ordeal, according to the authorities.
It took a huge effort to drill through the debris of rock, concrete and earth to reach them. A shout of joy and jubilation spread everywhere after the great success.
Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari said "I am completely relieved and happy as 41 trapped labourers in the Silkyara Tunnel Collapse have been successfully rescued," in a statement. "This was a well-coordinated effort by multiple agencies, marking one of the most significant rescue operations in recent years."
The rescued men were draped in orange marigold flower garlands in celebration as they were greeted by state officials as a line of ambulances waited to receive them.
The men, low-wage workers from India's poorest states, were stuck in the 4.5 kilometre (3 mile) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on November 12.
The workers were seen alive for the first time exactly a week ago, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water, oxygen, medicine and electricity have been delivered.
Though trapped, they had plenty of space in the tunnel, with the area inside 8.5 metres high and stretching about 2 kilometres in length.
Efforts to dig a tunnel to reach and rescue the workers with drilling machines were complicated by falling debris and repeated breakdowns of drilling machines.
The government said on Wednesday efforts had been thwarted by the "challenging Himalayan terrain".
Last week, engineers working to drive a metal pipe horizontally through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the earth, snapping a giant earth-boring auger machine.
In a separate effort, vertical drilling reached more than a quarter of the 89 metres down to the men, a risky route in an area that has already suffered a collapse. A drilling machine was brought up to the forested hill above the tunnel on a specially constructed track.
So-called rat miners were brought in on Monday to drill through the rocks, gravel and metal obstacles by hand from inside a narrow evacuation pipe that pushed through the debris after machinery failed.
The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890-kilometre network of roads.
Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
印度倒塌隧道內41名工人受困17天後安全獲救
印度當局稱，經過17天的磨難，印度救援人員週二終於安全救出被困在印度北部喜馬拉雅山脈倒塌隧道中的41名建築工人。
我們需要付出巨大的努力來鑽穿岩石、混凝土和泥土的碎片才能到達它們。 巨大的成功後，到處都是歡呼雀躍的聲音。
公路運輸部長尼廷·加德卡里 (Nitin Gadkari) 在一份聲明中表示： “Silkyara 隧道塌陷中 41 名被困工人已成功獲救，我感到非常欣慰和高興。” “這是多個機構協調一致的努力，也是近年來最重要的救援行動之一。”
獲救的人們戴著橙色萬壽菊花環慶祝，他們受到州官員的歡迎，一排救護車等著他們。
這些男子是來自印度最貧困邦的低薪工人，自 11 月 12 日倒塌以來，他們一直被困在北阿坎德邦 4.5 公里（3 英里）的隧道中。
就在一週前，人們第一次看到這些工人還活著，他們凝視著救援人員從一根細管中送入的內視鏡攝影機的鏡頭，透過這條細管輸送空氣、食物、水、氧氣、藥品和電力。
雖然受困，但隧道內空間充足，隧道內高8.5米，長約2公里。
由於碎片掉落和鑽孔機反覆故障，挖掘隧道以到達並營救使用鑽孔機的工人的工作變得更加複雜。
政府週三表示，「具有挑戰性的喜馬拉雅地形」阻礙了相關努力。
上週，工程師們正在將一根金屬管水平穿過 57 公尺（187 英尺）的岩石和混凝土，卻撞上了埋在地下的金屬樑和施工車輛，導致一台巨大的鑽地螺旋鑽機斷裂。
在另一項努力中，垂直鑽孔深入了 89 公尺深度的四分之一以上，這在已經遭受塌陷的地區是一條危險的路線。 一台鑽孔機被運送到隧道上方森林覆蓋的小山上，沿著一條專門建造的軌道。
週一，所謂的老鼠礦工被請來，從一條狹窄的疏散管道內用手鑽穿岩石、礫石和金屬障礙物，該疏散管道在機器故障後穿過碎片。
該隧道是耗資 15 億美元的 Char Dham 高速公路的一部分，該高速公路是納倫德拉·莫迪總理最雄心勃勃的項目之一，旨在通過 890 公里的道路網連接四個印度教朝聖地。
當局尚未透露塌陷原因，但該地區容易發生山崩、地震和洪水。
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