Uttarkashi Tunnel Rescue: Unveiling the heroes behind the rescue of 41 workers

Guwahati, Nov 29: After 17 days, 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel emerged into the light. The rescue operation, hailed as India's largest to date, prompted cheers and jubilation at the site, offering a collective sigh of relief for the nation. Various participants, both from the state and non-state sectors, contributed to the operation, including Australian freelancer Arnold Dix, specialising in tunnel rescue.

Assam too breathed a sigh of relief as two workers from Kokrajhar district -- Sanjay Basumatary and Ram Prasad Narzary were also rescued in the operation. The successful rescue operation brought joy to their families, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma expressed gratitude to the Central government and other agencies via a series of tweets.

An outlawed practice:

Who could have thought that the banned practice of rathole mining would come to the rescue of the labourers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, especially after sophisticated equipment such as the auger drilling machine failed to create a rescue passage?

In India, rat hole mining, a prohibited method, entails extracting coal through perilously narrow tunnels, often employing workers, including children. Predominantly practised in Meghalaya due to challenging terrain and unique coal properties, this method faced a ban by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014. The prohibition was rooted in concerns about its unscientific approach and the safety hazards it imposed on workers.

The tunnel collapse

The Silkyara tunnel is part of the 890-km-long flagship Char Dham project connecting key Hindu pilgrim sites via two-lane roads in the Himalayas.

On November 12, 2023, a collapse occurred in the under-construction tunnel from Silkyara to Barkot due to debris falling in a 60-metre stretch on the Silkyara side. Immediate mobilisation of resources by the State and Central governments ensued to rescue the 41 trapped labourers.

Five agencies -- ONGC, SJVNL, RVNL, NHIDCL, and THDCL—were assigned specific responsibilities, working collaboratively with occasional task adjustments for operational efficiency.

Rescue operation

The outlawed practice has now come to the rescue of the trapped workers after an American auger machine failed to cut through the debris blocking their escape.

As per reports, the rat-hole miners removed the last barrier of debris manually using hand-held tools. Rescuers successfully pulled out the workers in wheeled stretchers through a wide pipe that was pushed through the debris after a 17-day ordeal.

Since November 12, several plans have been executed, including drilling from over three sites - horizontal and vertical. The machines did help in moving pipes for food and other necessary materials to the trapped workers, but the rescue pipe could not reach them till the end.

The "rat miners" started working late on Monday after the drilling machine broke down with just a few metres left to reach the trapped men, according to reports.

By the afternoon of November 28, using their small equipment, they had successfully dug the remaining 10 meters. On the evening of the same day, all 41 workers trapped inside the tunnel were successfully rescued.

People involved in the rescue operation

Arnold Dix, a renowned tunnelling expert, supervised the use of the American auger for horizontal drilling of the tunnel. As the Australian president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, Dix's expertise in underground tunnelling played a crucial role in efficiently extracting workers from the site.

Chris Cooper, a seasoned micro-tunnelling expert, joined the response efforts at the tunnel collapse site on November 18. With decades of experience as a Chartered Engineer specialising in various civil engineering projects, including Metro tunnels, Large Caverns, Dams, Railway, and Mining Projects, Cooper also serves as the international consultant for the Rishikesh Karnprayag rail project.

Twelve rat-hole mining specialists, hailing from locations such as Delhi and Jhansi, undertook horizontal excavation at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. Focused on the final 10 to 12 metres of debris in the collapsed section of the under-construction tunnel, they employed techniques like micro-tunnelling, manual drilling and conducting the rescue through the narrow 800 mm pipe to pull out the trapped workers.

In the midst of the relief and jubilation over the successful rescue of trapped workers, it becomes crucial to recognise the significance of a well-thought-out rescue plan or a reliable backup strategy for addressing such situations.