PM Modi didn't miss single day's update: Dhami on Uttarkashi tunnel rescue

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, on Wednesday, expressed his happiness on the successful rescue of trapped 41 workers from the Uttarkashi tunnel and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was being constantly updated of the mission and did not miss the updates even a single day.

"The mission was very challenging and all the people working in it have contributed. I thank everyone, especially our Prime Minister. I never heard that even for a single day the Prime Minister missed any update on the rescue mission. He took cognizance of even the minutest details of the rescue operation and extended his advice on how we could proceed further," said Dhami.

"He (PM Modi) explained everything about how to motivate the experts who were fully engaged and because of his constant guidance, we made this difficult campaign successful," Dhami added.

On being asked about the challenges of getting the resources and equipment assembled in a hilly area, Dhami credited PM Modi for overcoming these challenges saying that the PM kept the entire campaign under his control.

"Among PM Modi's daily programs, one of his main programs would be to monitor this campaign daily. Because of that, all the machinery came from all over the country, experts came, and experts from the world came. Disasters had happened earlier also, but this kind of concern and this kind of monitoring was never seen," Dhami said.

Speaking about the entire journey of the rescue operation, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister said that multiple times it seemed that the destination would be reached very soon and all the trapped workers would be taken out but every now and then, some kind of problem would arise.

"On the first day, when we started working on it, it seemed that this debris would be easily removed with JCB and the poclain machine but the more debris we removed, the more started coming from above. Then we brought the pipe, collected the pipe from Haridwar and Dehradun and the work of laying the pipe was done. So the pipe also could not move forward fast. After some time, the American machine Auger was brought but that too got stuck after covering a certain distance," said Dhami.

He further said that the machine was started again but it again got completely stuck inside and was damaged after which vertical drilling was started from above, but soon it was realised that the stuck Auger machine would have to be removed and once the parts of the Auger machine were removed, it was decided that further work would be done manually.

On being asked about the future of the Silkyara tunnel, the Uttarakhand CM said that all such ongoing projects will be reviewed and the government of India has also decided to conduct safety audits of all such projects at its level.

CM Dhami later met the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) personnel involved in the Uttarkashi Silkyara tunnel rescue.

He also bowed down and offered his prayers to the Sun God and the holy river Ganga.

All 41 workers who were trapped inside Uttarakhand's Silkyari tunnel since November 12 were evacuated safely on Tuesday evening.

On November 12, a section of the tunnel between 205 and 260 metres from the Silkyara side collapsed. Workers who were beyond the 260-metre mark were trapped, with their exit blocked.

The rescued workers were draped in orange marigold flower garlands and were greeted by CM Dhami and Union Minister VK Singh.

CM Dhami announced that the Uttarakhand government will provide financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to each of the workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel.