After 17 days of the marathon operation, the workers has been evacuated from the Silkyara tunnel and efforts to bring out the remaining trapped workers were underway

State government's information department chief Bansi Dhar Tiwari told reporters a little after 1.30 pm that the drilling was over

Going by the practised drill, each worker will lie down on a wheeled stretcher that would be pulled by rescue workers outside using ropes. This was expected to take about two or three hours

Less than an hour later, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the process of laying the escape pipe into the drilled passage was complete. "Soon all brother workers will be brought out," he posted on social media

Earlier, NHIDCL managing director Mahmood Ahmed did not immediately confirm that the drilling work was over. He told reporters that the last section of the pipe was being pushed through

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were expected to enter the steel chute pushed into the drilled passage over the past several days and then bring out the workers one-by-one

Anticipation had been building up at the disaster site on the Char Dham route hours before the news broke outside

Ambulances were lining up at the mouth of the tunnel to rush the rescued workers as they are brought of the steel chute one by one to a community health centre