Workers can be seen enjoying their meals inside the tunnel
New Delhi:
Days after rescuers brought out 41 workers trapped in an Uttarakhand tunnel for 17 days, NDTV has accessed exclusive images of them spending time inside the collapsed tunnel.
In the pictures, the workers can be seen enjoying their meals including roti, sabzi and rice.
Pictures also show the workers sitting and having bread and milk inside the tunnel.
They can also be seen clicking selfies and pictures with the collapsed tunnel in the background.
NDTV has also accessed the exclusive videos, which show the stored water bottles, food and fruits that were sent to the trapped workers through a pipe.
All the 41 workers who were trapped inside Uttarakhand’s Silkyari tunnel since November 12 were evacuated safely on Tuesday after a multi-agency rescue operation.
They were pulled out through 57 metres of steel pipe on stretchers fitted with wheels.
After being kept under medical observation for a night at the community health centre at Chinyalisaur, they were on Wednesday airlifted to AIIMS Rishikesh for a thorough examination of their health parameters.
They got trapped after a section of the tunnel between 205 and 260 metres from the Silkyara side collapsed on November 12.
Earlier on Thursday, the AIIMS-Rishikesh declared all the workers fit to return home.
Briefing the media on their health condition, Dr Ravikant, head of the general medicine department, said that the workers were thoroughly examined and their blood test, X-ray and ECG reports were normal.
“They are physically normal and clinically stable. We have given them clearance to return home,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
However, one of the workers from Uttarakhand stayed back at the facility for the treatment of a congenital medical condition, Dr Ravikant said.
A worker from Uttarakhand has been incidentally diagnosed with Atrial Septal Defect, an anomaly that is present at birth, he said.
