Success at Silkyara: All 41 trapped workers brought out, 17-day ordeal ends

Finally, after 17 days, rescue teams achieved success in the Silkyara tunnel operations on Tuesday safely bringing out all the 41 trapped workers. Ambulances are ready and 41 oxygen-supported beds have been made available at Chiyalisaur's Community Health Centre (CHC) located 30 km away from the tunnel.

Silkyara Tunnel(Uttarkashi): After a 17-day ordeal, the authorities were able to safely pull out all 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel here. On November 12, a section of the tunnel between 205 and 260 metres from the Silkyara side had collapsed trapping the workers who were beyond the 260-metre mark.

A team of NDRF and SDRF brought out the trapped workers on wheeled stretchers one by one on Tuesday evening. Sources said that all of the trapped labourers were safely evacuated with the first worker brought out at around 8 pm. An ambulance with the worker sitting in the vehicle left the mouth of the tunnel and was headed to a community health centre. An official said rescue workers had broken through the last stretch of the rubble at about 7 pm.

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and Union Minister V K Singh were inside the Silkyara tunnel as trapped workers were brought out one by one. The success of the 17-day rescue operation brought smiles to the faces of the anxious kin of the trapped workers, many of whom had been waiting outside the tunnel for several days.

Soon after the workers were evacuated, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said he was "completely relieved and happy". It was the talent and experience of rat-hole miners that proved fruitful in the rescue operation. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said that rat-hole miners did a phenomenal job by digging 10 metres in less than 24 hours. "Rat-hole mining may be illegal, but rat miners' talent and experience which is being used, it is their capability which is being used," he said in a media briefing in New Delhi.

Rat-hole mining involves digging narrow tunnels, usually 3-4 feet high, for workers to enter and extract coal. The horizontal tunnels are often termed "rat holes", as each just about fits one person. At the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, at least 12 experts were called by Trenchless Engineering Services Pvt Ltd and Navayuga Engineers Pvt Ltd to deploy the rat-hole mining technique horizontally in the collapsed part of the main structure.

The rat-hole mining experts were involved in the horizontal excavation through the last 10 or 12-metre stretch of debris of the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route.

Earlier in the day, the trapped workers were visible through the pipe, and sources said the evacuation would start in three to four hours, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. Briefing the media in Delhi, Hasnain said 58 metres of drilling had been completed and about 2 metres more need to be dug.

"We are near a breakthrough but not yet there. Manual work has carried on and we have reached 58 metres. The debris had been cut and the work was going on the entire night. Our rat miners, experts and Army engineers have been able to take it to 58 metres and the pipe has been pushed with the help of the auger machine..."

The NDMA members said it would take 3-4 hours to evacuate workers from the tunnel after the breakthrough is achieved. "All security and safety precautions are being taken for workers trapped inside Silkyara tunnel and for those engaged in rescue operations," he said.

"It will take about three to five minutes to pull out one individual each. So, it will take about three to four hours to rescue all 41 workers," Hasnain said. "There are 41 people inside (tunnel) and outside there are several people who are involved in the rescue work, safety and security these people are equally important. We are not in any hurry," he added.

A special ward with 41 oxygen-supported beds was readied days earlier at the community health centre, about 30 km from Silkyara, for the rescued workers. Doctors were standing by and arrangements were made to fly the workers to more advanced hospitals, if needed. As per the inputs from the ground, the trapped workers are in good health, though arrangements are being made to bring them out using stretchers.

Officials decided to switch to manual boring to break through the last 10 metres of the rubble after the heavy-duty auger drilling machine got stuck in the rubble on Friday. Twelve rat-hole mining experts were called in to finish the last stretch of drilling using hand-held tools in a confined space.

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