All 41 construction workers who have been trapped in the 4.5 km long tunnel for more than two weeks were finally rescued on the evening of November 28.
Workers were pulled out on wheeled stretchers through a large pipeline that rescue forces in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand had taken through layers of debris and rocks.
Medical teams were on duty for several days to assess the workers' condition after they were rescued and taken to nearby hospitals immediately.
Medical experts say that workers will need support and long-term monitoring of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTS).
Dr Dinakaran D - from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences in India - told Al Jazeera: "All 41 people will experience some symptoms after injury such as insomnia, recurring nightmares, reminiscing about the tunnel collapse, and anxiety".
Rescue work encountered many obstacles due to the nature of the Himalaya terrain and equipment failure, causing the rescue process to be prolonged. Initially, excavators tried to dig through the rubble, intending to bring wide steel pipes as a way for workers to escape the tunnel. However, large rocks have hampered this process. The debris, gravel, cement and iron bars inside the tunnel further delayed the mission.
During the rescue campaign, even the most sophisticated drilling machines were broken many times, forcing government agencies to mobilize workers using the raw coal mining method to drill by hand through the debris in the final stage of the rescue campaign.
These miners, from central Indian states, are experts in approaching coal mines through narrow paths using dangerous methods.
Indian industrial billionaire Anand Mahindra noted that after all the complex drilling equipment failed, it was the umbly miners who created the important breakthrough. It is a warm reminder that, after all, heroism is often the effort and sacrifice of the individual, he wrote on X network (formerly Twitter).
About 60 disaster management officials, 80 police and 20 firefighters have joined in the rescue efforts. International experts, including Arnold Dix, a tunnel expert from Australia, have also been dispatched to the mission.
As the mission is nearing the end, the families of the workers waiting outside the tunnel begin celebrating. Despite the obstacles in the drilling process that caused delays, relatives as well as the team of doctors and psychiatrists are still dedicated to motivating the workers who are stuck.
Workers were stranded on November 12, India's biggest religious festival, Diwali, when part of the tunnel under construction collapsed due to a landslide. They were not injured and government agencies could contact them by phone within hours. Since then, these workers have received food and other necessities through steel pipes.
The collapsed tunnel is part of India's ambitious $1.5 billion Char Dham expressway project, connecting Hindu pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand via an 890-km road network.
Last week, Reuters reported that a group of disaster investigators said that the tunnel had no escape route and could have been built at a geological fault known as the "cutting zone", which could have caused the tunnel to collapse.
