[1/2] Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand, greets a worker after he was rescued from the collapsed tunnel site in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, India, November 28, 2023.
The men, all construction workers hailing from some of India's poorest states, were trapped in the under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand state for 17 days before they were pulled out on Tuesday.
The hospital is coordinating with officials from their home states to facilitate their return, they said.
The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of the government's most ambitious projects, which seeks to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites.
Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel to collapse but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
Persons:
Pushkar Singh Dhami, Narendra Kumar, Sakshi Dayal, Raju Gopalakrishnan
Organizations:
REUTERS, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Authorities, Thomson
Locations:
Pushkar, Uttarakhand, Uttarkashi, India, DELHI, Rishikesh, Jharkhand, Odisha