Search and rescue operations are underway in Silkyara in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand where 40 workers are trapped after an under-construction tunnel in the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway caved in on Sunday morning.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the site on Monday morning and reviewed the relief and rescue operations. Dhami informed on X that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) and the police were working “in full force” to remove the debris from the tunnel.

“Contact has been made with the workers trapped in the tunnel through walkie-talkie. It has been reported that everyone is safe, efforts are being made to get them out safely soon”, he said. The CM also said that the central government has assured all possible assistance in the operations and hoped that it will be completed soon.

Addressing media later, Dhami reiterated that central and state agencies, experts in tunnels and rescue operations were working continuously to safely retrieve the workers. He said that the oxygen, food and water were being supplied through pipe. He also informed that there is electricity inside the tunnel.

Further, the Uttarakhand CM stated that the priority is to get the workers out safely and for that the installation of Hume Pipe was the main necessity.

DD News stated that the majority of the trapped individuals are laborers from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, and West Bengal.

The tunnel is part of a Hindu pilgrimage route called the Char Dham pilgrimage project, which is one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. It aims to connect four important Hindu pilgrimage sites of North India through 889 kilometres (552 miles) of two-lane road being constructed at a cost of $1.5 billion.