Women laborers from the Border Roads Organisation’s General Reserve Engineer Force played an important role in the ongoing rescue efforts to save 41 stranded lives in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. With shovels and construction tools in their hands, the women labourers constructed a 1.5 km track leading to the top of a hillock under the tunnel.
“Not going back until we finish our work and save all the 41 people trapped there,” the women leaders were quoted as saying.
They also said that they had been trained to fight against all odds under any circumstances. “We will achieve our goal and won’t give up until our work will be completed here. I will be happy if I can save their lives,” said a 35-year-old GREF woman and widow from Himachal.
The Silkyara Tunnel, about 30 kilometres from Uttarkashi’s district headquarters and a seven-hour drive from Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun, is part of the central government’s ambitious Char Dham all-weather road project.
The tunnel is being built by the NHIDCL. Around 41 workers got trapped in the tunnel after it collapsed on last Sunday (12th November) at around 5.30 am. Rescue operations are underway.
