“Every life matters” and the historical rescue operation conducted to save 41 precious lives of workers who were trapped inside when a section of Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel at Uttrakhand collapsed on November 12, 2023, practically proved every single word of the above mantra given by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. It may be recalled that a section of the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel collapsed, trapping 41 construction workers inside. The 60 meter-long blockage occurred from a point about 200 metres (660 ft) from the entrance of the tunnel inwards. Soon the State Government launched Operation Zindagi to get the trapped workers back safely and 41 workers were rescued after 17 days. During the rescue operation, the entire nation swung from despair to hope back to despair until November 29, when the workers were safely evacuated. The entire world saluted the courage, bravery and determination of the workers trapped inside and team working outside to protect the precious lives. Once again we Indians proved why we are considered as ‘super minds’ globally. Anshu Manish Khalkho, Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) under whose supervision the entire rescue operation was carried-out, was in the city to attend a private ceremony.

 

Khalkho has his roots in Jabalpur from where he did his schooling and higher education. During his visit to the city, Director, NHIDCL, Khalko interacted with ‘The Hitavada’ and talked in length about the entire rescue process. “It was a perfect example of excellent multi-departmental coordination, teamwork, determination and trust and overall excellent implementation of our innovative ideas and available resources. No stone was left unturned from lower upto PMO level to get it done. Our Prime Minister personally monitored the entire rescue operation. We all trusted on each-other’s efficiencies and fulfilled our part to let the history created”, says the Director, NHIDCL. “It was no less than moving the mountain and a tough test of grit and perseverance for those on both sides of the debris as the rescue was facing hurdles one after another during the operation which lasted for around 400 hours. The first was when excavators working to remove debris failed to make headway. An auger machine was requisitioned from Dehradun but that proved insufficient. A larger machine was then flown in from Delhi, using which rescuers managed to drill through 45 metres of debris. Then, came the toughest setback when the blades of the drilling machine broke inside the rescue pipes, and had to be manually cut. It was quite hard for our team to go inside that cramped space and cut it down using gas cutters for hours.

 

Once the broken blades were taken out, rescuers opted to go the rest of the way manually, calling 12 workers familiar with rat-hole mining, a method of extracting coal from narrow, horizontal seams. Meanwhile we also had an earthquake, but despite many setbacks, we all were quite determined to get our men back safely”, he proudly expresses. Describing about the incident, he says “The workers were working the night shift digging the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel on the Yamunotri National Highway when a portion of it collapsed at dawn on November 12. Till 10.00 pm we were clueless about the whereabouts of our workers, it was only after they started pumping out water from de-watering pipe, we knew about their survival and soon our communication started through that de-watering pipe only.