Trapped Indian construction workers get rescued from collapsed tunnel following 17 days ordeal

All 41 construction workers who were trapped in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Northern India for since November 12 have been freed after rescuers used hand drills to reach the workers.

Images emerged on November 28 of the workers being greeted by regional officials after a 17 days ordeal, as reported by Times.

All the men were extracted from the tunnel within an hour on stretchers via a 1 meter pipe in diameter. Rescuers had broken through the final meters of debris using manual excavation measures as rescue workers faced setbacks due to faulty machinery that broke last week.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which builds and manages has been ordered to inspect all tunnel construction projects nationwide.

The Deutsche Welle noted that the Silkyara Tunnel, 4.5 kilometers long and located on the Char Dham pilgrimage route designed to connect four important Hindu sites in northern India, which is currently one of the most ambitious projects of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government yet it apparently did not have an emergency exit, which has posed another challenge to rescuers struggling with busted machinery and possibly unstable terrain. The infrastructure project is being built at a cost of €1.36 billion.