Kin of trapped workers say they won’t send them to Silkyara again

Relatives of 41 workers trapped in Silkyara tunnel for over two weeks rejoice as they are rescued. Romen Narajari, Krishna Patelz, Chaudhary, and Rajni Tundu all express relief, vowing never to let their loved ones work in Silkyara again. They recount the difficult days of waiting, with Chaudhary referring to his son as a sapling. Despite the joy, they call for better safety measures to prevent similar tragedies.

“I won’t send him here [Silkyara] ever again, no matter what,” said Romen Narajari, brother of Ram Poshak Narajari who is one among the 41 workers who remained trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel after a collapse that took place on November 12, on the day of Deepavali.

Romen, who belongs to Ramfalbil Village in Kokrajhar, Assam, reached the tunnel site on November 14 and was awaiting the rescue of his elder brother for over a fortnight. With a small bag of clothes, Romen spent the nights at a small room provided to him by the Uttarakhand government, metres away from the tunnel. When it used to get colder in the nights, Romen used to sit next to the bonfire set up by the police near the barricades at the tunnel site.

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“They first said that my brother is coming out on [November] 17. Hopes again picked up. Now, when they said that they are coming out on Tuesday, I could not believe,” Romen added.

Among the 41 workers who were trapped inside the tunnel, two each were from Uttarakhand and Assam, one from Himachal Pradesh, five from Bihar, three from West Bengal, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five from Odisha and 15 are from Jharkhand.

Life remained no less difficult for Chaudhary from Behrampur village in Uttar Pradesh, whose son Manjeet remained in the tunnel for 17 days. This incident was even more distressing for Mr. Chaudhary as he lost his elder son at a construction site last year.

“Mera ek bacha paudha bach gya [one of the two saplings of mine is saved]”, Mr. Chaudhary said. He was referring to his son as sapling.