Uttarakhand: Water from stream gushes into under-construction tunnel, 114 workers and engineers rescued

Prompt action by the police on Monday led to the rescue of 114 workers and engineers trapped in an under-construction tunnel of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail project after water from a nearby stream gushed in.

All of them were rescued by police personnel in Uttarakhand's Rishikesh district, Muni ki Reti SHO Ritesh Shah said.

Ajay Pratap Singh, the manager of Larsen & Toubro -- the construction company implementing the project -- informed the Shivpuri outpost about the workers being trapped in chest-deep water about 300 metres inside the Edit-2 tunnel around 10 am.

Head constables Ajayraj Singh, Manish Kumar, Ravindra Rana, Jaideep Negi, Diwakar Fuloria and Deepak Rawat of the Jal Police were deployed to launch a rescue operation, Shah said.

The water was first pumped out of the tunnel using heavy equipment and the workers were safely brought out, he said.

Narendranagar Sub-divisional Magistrate DS Negi said the police team performed a commendable job and emptied the tunnel.

The company employees are now cleaning the garbage inside the tunnel, he said.