Ever since Anita Nayek received the news of her husband being trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand, she has not stopped praying for his safe return. Today, when she got to know that the 41 workers who are trapped in the tunnel will soon be evacuated, she is overjoyed.
“It was Diwali morning [November 12] when my husband was trapped inside the tunnel. We are poor people and we do not have the money to celebrate Diwali. We have no money to buy oil to cook food, let alone light diyas. But, his homecoming will be nothing less than a Diwali for us,” Anita Nayek, from Manikpur village in East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, told Gaon Connection.
Ravindra Nayek, her husband, is one of the 41 workers who are trapped inside the tunnel. Fifteen out of them are from Jharkhand.
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“When I got to know from newspapers and media that he is alive and food is being sent to him, I found hope and now my children, who are six and four years old respectively, and I are waiting eagerly,” she said.
Three of Budni Nayek’s sons are working at the same site, but two of them are safe while one of them, Ganodhar, is trapped in the tunnel.
“It’s been a stressful time for us as a family, but now I am relieved that he is about to be evacuated,” Budni, who is also from Manikpur village said.
“I never wanted to send them away to such dangerous sites for work. But in the absence of other job opportunities, they had to go,” she said. Meanwhile, Jawaharlal Nayek, uncle of Samir Nayek, who is also trapped heard the good news of the rescue from Gaon Connection.
“I was at a meeting of the local Cooperative Society when Gaon Connection informed me that the workers are about to come out. We will visit a temple in the village to worship for the safe return of all the 41 workers to their families. After Samir’s return to home, we will welcome him traditionally and wash his feet and do other ceremonies,” he said.
“It is the power of our prayer and the blessings of god that the workers who were trapped on the day of Deepawali rescued are now being rescued on the first day after Dev Deepawali,” he added.
Hira Lohar, is feeling much better after she heard about the imminent rescue of her son Ranjit Lohar.
The bedridden lady from Manikpur village told Gaon Connection, “I have two sons and both of them go out to work for a livelihood. Ranjit’s brother works in Bangalore. Fellow villagers have been informing me about the development of the rescue operation. I was confident that my son would be rescued,” she said.
Hira Lohar, mother of Ranjit Lohar at her residence in Manikpur, Dumaria
Rescue Operation Underway
Meanwhile, mechanised drills that were in operation have been stopped. Their blades were getting obstructed by the metal pieces in the debris.
According to reports, the rescuers are now manually drilling through the remaining 15 metres using rat-hole mining techniques, usually used to mine coal from narrow, horizontal passages by burrowing small holes that are about a metre in width.
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“It is estimated that it will take 3-5 minutes to evacuate each of the 41 people. The entire evacuation is expected to take three to four hours. Three teams of the NDRF [National Disaster Response Force] will go inside the tunnel to organise the evacuation. SDRF [State Disaster Response Force] will provide support. Paramedics will also go inside the tunnel at the time of evacuation,” Syed Ata Hasnain, member of the National Disaster Management Authority told the press.
