Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday said none of the 41 labourers rescued from an under-construction road tunnel in Uttarkashi district was in a critical condition.
Dhami also said the evacuation began with the youngest of the labourers. "All of them were fit and they crawled out of the passage on their own," he added.
Dhami said the labourers, who were trapped in the Silkyara tunnel for almost 17 days after a portion of the structure collapsed due to a landslide on November 12, will be kept under medical observation, before being sent home.
He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his constant support and motivation during the rescue operation.
The chief minister announced that Rs 1 lakh will be given to each of the 41 construction workers. He also said the Baukhnag temple will be rebuilt and the tunnels under construction in the hill state reviewed.
Dhami said the auger machines used in the operation repeatedly hit hurdles and thanked the manual miners for accomplishing the mission.
"The manual miners played a big role in the rescue operation. International experts were consulted regarding the shortest route for the workers to come out," he said.
The rescue workers pulled out all the 41 labourers trapped in the tunnel in a multi-agency rescue operation that hovered between hope and despair for almost 17 days.
Union minister V K Singh and Dhami welcomed the workers as National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) men brought them out through a steel chute that lined a 60-metre passage.
An ambulance with the first of the 41 workers left the tunnel around 8 pm, about an hour after a group of rat-hole-mining experts dug through the last stretch of rubble.
