At tonight’s NDTV Indian Of The Year awards, actor Sunny Deol broke down in tears after learning about the man who assisted in the Silkyara tunnel rescue operation in Uttarakhand. The rat-hole miners who were instrumental in freeing the 41 trapped workers from the tunnel were honored today by NDTV. One of the miners described how, after the machines had failed to reach the trapped workers, they pitched in.
“We told them that we will do the job in 24-36 hours. But, in today’s day and age people believe more in diploma than in experience,” said the miner. They also spoke about the daily hardships that they go through even after doing a great deed.
đź’« #NDTVIndianOfTheYear | Smriti Irani (@smritiirani) checks in at our big awards night amid birthday wishes. Watch here pic.twitter.com/NHM1xl3KsE
— NDTV (@ndtv) March 23, 2024
Sunny Deol teared up while hearing the stories of the real life heroes. He walked up to the stage and hugged the miners. He was later seen clicking selfies with them.
The 41 workers were stuck in a part of the tunnel for seventeen days after its partial collapse on November 12 last year.
The last fifteen meters or so of the tunnel’s collapsed section had to be manually drilled by the rat-hole miners through the rubble in order to create an escape route composed of steel pipes for the stranded workers. The Supreme Court prohibited the ‘rat hole’ mining method in 2014 due to its high risk of environmental contamination and safety hazards.
After multiple attempts to reach the workers using auger machines failed to yield the desired results, the rescuers turned to rat-hole mining as their last resort. The larger drills also frequently malfunctioned when they struck steel rods from the collapsed tunnel structure, among other metal obstacles. This necessitated longer stops while the laser cutters were being used.
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