SILKYARA: Women laborers from the Border Roads Organisation’s General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) played a vital role in the critical mission to rescue stranded labourers from the Silkyara tunnel on Sunday, constructing a 1.5km track leading to the top of a hillock under which the tunnel was being constructed.On Sunday morning, around 8:50am, a remarkable scene unfolded outside the tunnel.A group of GREF workers, predominantly women, armed with shovels and construction tools on their shoulders and hands, worked with precision to accomplish their mission by evening.Women laborers constructed a 1.5km track leading to the top of a hillock on Sunday“I started my day at 3am after we received orders to move to this site.

Unless we finish our work, we are not going back.

We will do all we can to save all the 41 people stuck here,” said Uttara Devi, 39, a widow and GREF member for a decade.

She lost her husband Pyare Lal in 2013.Suman Devi, 35, another GREF woman and widow from Himachal, said, “We are trained to conquer all odds under any circumstances.

We are determined to achieve our goal and won’t give up till we complete our work here.”Uttarakhand Tunnel workers face health issues, mental health concerns raised: Son's prays for father’s safetyTaking a brief break to talk to TOI, Suman, who lost her husband Arvind Kumar to cardiac arrest last year, said, “I will be happy if I can contribute to saving these many lives.

Resuming work was not on the cards for me, but it will be worth it if all these people come out safe.”Uttara and three other women, arriving in trucks from various BRO sites in Uttarakhand had no prior knowledge of the mission, but it became a priority for them as soon as they were informed about their mission.

Pooja Kumari (28) said, “We are hungry, and by the time food is cooked at the site, it will be late.

We are here to quickly eat something and resume work.”Geeta Devi, 43, a mother of two children in their early 20s from Chhattisgarh, with over 15 years in GREF, said, “Climbing up the mountains and making roads is just not tough; we work in mission mode and that’s the key."“We have made a road over 1.5 km, and now it is only the machine that needs to be brought up,” said Kavita Singh, another GREF woman who joined the operation from the Maneri site.