On November 28, all 41 employees were saved from the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. The following are the salient features of the mission that was executed.
A partial collapse caused by a landslip reportedly imprisoned 41 workers in the Silkyara tunnel, which is still under construction, on the Char Dham path in Uttarakhand for 17 days.
Trenchless Engineering Services Pvt Ltd and Navayuga Engineers Pvt Ltd summoned 12 specialists to use the rat-hole mining method in order to save the workers.
The auger machine failed during the rescue effort, so the rat-miners were called in to drill by hand. The manual drilling method used in rat-hole mining is done by qualified engineers.
To free the trapped miners, a dozen rat-hole mining specialists burrowed their way through the last 10 to 12 metres of debris in the collapsed part of the tunnel.
Using an endoscopic camera, engineers trying to free the imprisoned workers made video contact with them. A second six-inch pipe that was put into the debris provided food and fruits to the workers.
On November 28, all 41 of the stranded workmen were successfully removed from the Silkyara tunnel following a 17-day rescue operation.
Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, declared that every worker who was saved would receive one lakh.