Rescue personnel conduct search operations after water and debris entered a tunnel under construction at a hydroelectric project site on August 13, 2026, in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, on August 14, 2026. 19 were rescued overnight, seven died, and a search for the three missing is on.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Seven workers were killed and 12 others injured after a sudden surge of water and debris entered a hydro tunnel being constructed at the THDC India project site in the Pipalkoti area of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Thursday (August 13, 2026) evening.According to the State government, three workers were still believed to be trapped inside the tunnel, while rescue teams were continuing efforts to reach them amid challenging weather conditions.“It has been raining since morning, which is making the rescue operation difficult. Approximately 900 metres of the 4.5 kilometre-long tunnel is filled with water and sludge, while underwater visibility is extremely poor. As a result, rescuers are unable to determine the conditions beneath the water, and the search is therefore being carried out manually,” Chamoli District Magistrate Gaurav Kumar told The Hindu.Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), local police, and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have been deployed at the site. SDRF personnel were seen using makeshift boats made from plastic drums to carry out rescue operations inside the tunnel.‘No time to react’There were 22 workers, from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Himachal Pradesh, trapped inside the tunnel, which is being built by the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC). At the time of the incident, at around 7 p.m. on Thursday (August 13), construction work was underway, with workers engaged in routine activities involving steel reinforcement and support structures.Jageshwar Gaur, one of the workers who managed to escape from the tunnel, said the conditions inside the tunnel had changed without any warning, as a powerful rush of air sweept through the site.“We had virtually no time to react,” he said.The 12 injured workers were taken to the district hospital. Doctors said the condition of two workers remained critical.Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reached Pipalkoti on Friday (August 14) to review the rescue operation and meet the injured workers. The safe evacuation of every worker trapped inside the tunnel remained the government’s top priority, he said.Worker safety concernsMukesh Semwal, Uttarakhand State Coordinator of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), said that repeated tunnel collapses and industrial accidents in Uttarakhand highlighted serious concerns over worker safety and environmental safeguards in large infrastructure projects.The deaths and injuries at the Chamoli tunnel could not simply be treated as an unavoidable accident, he warned.“Inadequate safety measures, reckless construction practices, and the prioritisation of corporate interests over workers’ lives were responsible for the tragedy,” he said, calling for greater accountability from both the government and the companies involved in such projects. Published - August 14, 2026 08:59 pm IST
