By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Seven workers were killed, three went missing and 12 injured after a portion of a tunnel of 444 Mw Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydel project being constructed by THDC India ltd on Alaknanda river collapsed following landslides in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on Thursday evening.
The state operation emergency centre confirmed the death of seven workers inside the tunnel which was being constructed by HCC Ltd under contractual provisions. Among the dead, two workers — Pradip Panwar and Mukesh Singh were from Uttarakhand, top officials said on Friday. The rest of the five were from Uttar Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.
All the three missing workers, Lukas Topno, Chetan Poyam, Dev Nath, were from Chhatisgarh. Most of the injured were being treated at Gopeshwar Hospital in Chamoli.
Earlier, officials received information around 7 pm on Thursday evening that 22 workers were trapped inside the tunnel. The district administration, police, SDRF, CISF and other agencies immediately launched a rescue operation.
Nearly 1.5 km of the 3 km long underground tunnel of the project was affected by the landslides, top officials said.
Teams of the Army, NDRF and SDRF were mobilised as efforts were underway to safely evacuate the workers with all available resources and equipment being deployed.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who flew to Pipalkoti on Friday morning to take stock of the situation, directed officials to conduct the rescue operation on a war footing and maintain close coordination among all agencies. He said the government’s top priority is to ensure the safe evacuation of every person trapped inside the tunnel.
The state and district emergency operation Centres kept closely monitoring the situation. But shortly after midnight, the state operation emergency centre in Dehradun said seven trapped workers were dead inside the tunnel and three were still missing.