Uttarakhand tunnel: Rescue workers recount first meeting with labourers

Feroze Qureshi and Monu Kumar, experts in the rat-hole mining technique, were the first to meet the 41 labourers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand after they cleared the last bit of the rubble inside the structure.

All the 41 workers were rescued on Tuesday evening after 17 days of a multi-agency operation conducted by the central and state governments.

Qureshi from Delhi and Kumar from Uttar Pradesh were part of a 12-member team of rat-hole mining technique experts who were called on Sunday to do the drilling after an American auger machine came across hurdles while clearing the rubble.

“They (the labourers) could hear us when we reached the last portion of the rubble. Soon after removing the rubble, we got down to the other side,” Qureshi, a resident of Delhi’s Khajoori Khas said. “The labourers thanked and hugged me. They also lifted me on their shoulders,” he said, adding that he was happier than the rescued workers. Qureshi is an employee of the Delhi-based Rockwell Enterprises and an expert in tunnelling work. “They (the labourers) gave me almonds and asked my name. Soon, our other colleagues joined us and we were there for about half an hour,” Kumar, a resident of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, said.

He said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel went inside the tunnel after them. “We came back only after the NDRF personnel arrived,” Kumar said.

The leader of the 12-member team from Rockwell Enterprises, Wakeel Hassan, said he was approached for help by a company involved in the rescue operation four days ago.

“The work got delayed while removing the portion of the auger from the rubble. We started at 3 pm on Monday and finished the work at 6 pm on Tuesday,” Hassan said, adding, “We had said the work would be finished in 24 to 36 hours and that is what we did.”

A day after 41 workers were rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, the Congress on Wednesday demanded a thorough audit of all projects under implementation while also calling for putting on hold all future projects in the Himalayan region and subjecting them to professional ecological scrutiny.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said while “we salute the rescued workers and applaud the entire rescue team”, there should be a reflection on some larger questions thrown up by the

tunnel collapse.