Uttarkashi tunnel survivors airlifted to AIIMS-Rishikesh, under medical observation. Top updates.

Uttarakhand tunnel survivors airlifted to AIIMS-Rishikesh for check-up

The 41 workers, who were rescued from Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel after 17 days, were airlifted to AIIMS-Rishikesh for a health check-up on Wednesday.

The 41 rescued workers from the collapsed Silkyara tunnel pose as they board the IAF's Chinook helicopter for Rishikesh for further medical examination on Wednesday.(ANI)

The rescue of the 41 men brought the curtain down on a daring but painstaking operation that spanned 17 anxious days and multiple hurdles. Twelve “rat-hole miners” burrowed through a wall of rock, mud and debris with hand-held tools in the final breakthrough on Tuesday, as the country heaved a collective sigh of relief.

After their rescue on Tuesday evening, the workers were kept under medical observation at a hospital in Chinyalisaur. They were then brought to AIIMS-Rishikesh in a Chinook helicopter in the afternoon.

Here are the latest updates:

• The workers were kept under medical observation at a hospital in Chinyalisaur after their evacuation. They were then brought to AIIMS-Rishikesh in a Chinook helicopter in the afternoon.
• “All the workers have been brought to the wards. Medical protocols are being followed,” Dehradun district magistrate Sonika told ANI. “All the workers are being examined and they are under observation…”
• Earlier today, an official at AIIMS-Rishikesh told PTI the workers will first be taken to the trauma ward of the hospital from where they will be shifted to the disaster ward for a detailed examination of their health parameters.

• Relatives of the workers are also being brought to Rishikesh in buses. The disaster ward of AIIMS-Rishikesh has a capacity of 100 beds.
• AIIMS Rishikesh Executive Director & CEO Meenu Singh said that the workers were feeling quite normal and behaving normally. “Their blood pressure, vitals, oxygenation - everything is normal. We have done some basic preliminary investigations just to look at their electrolytes and their other blood parameters. The report will be coming and we will also be doing their ECG, just to see if there is any effect on the heart,” Singh said.
• Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced a cash incentive of Rs. 50,000 for all personnel involved in the Silkyara Tunnel rescue operation. Earlier, he had also declared a financial aid of Rs. 1 lakh each to the 41 workers.
• Anil Bediya, one of the 41 labourers, told PTI that the men initially survived the ordeal by eating 'muri' (puffed rice) and licking water dripping from rocks. "Loud shrieks punctuated the air...We all thought we would be buried inside the tunnel and had lost all hope during the first couple of days," Bediya told the news agency over the phone from Uttarakhand on Wednesday morning while narrating their harrowing tale.
• In Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district, the father of one of the labourers died hours before his son was rescued from the Uttarkashi tunnel. Baset Murmu, 70, had been waiting to see his 29-year-old son, Bhaktu Murmu, coming out of the Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel. However, he died of a heart attack on Tuesday.