Uttarakhand Tunnel Collapse: Meet Rescue Team Behind 17-day Ops to Extract 41 Trapped Workers – News18

The 41 workers are only hours away from being rescued from the rubble of the collapsed part of the under-construction Silkyara tunnel, where they have been trapped for 17 days now. The multiagency rescue mission has clocked more than 400 hours, but is on the threshold of success after a series of hurdles delayed it.

Member of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) said the operation to bring out the workers is likely to take the entire night. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indian Army and other state as well as central agencies have been working day and night to rescue the trapped workers.

Here is a look at the rescue team of the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation:

IAS officer Neeraj Khairwal

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami appointed IAS officer Neeraj Khairwal as the nodal officer in the Silkyara tunnel collapse. He has been overseeing all rescue and relief operations for the past 10 days and is tasked with sending hourly updates to the chief minister and prime minister’s office.

Underground tunnelling expert Arnold Dix

Arnold Dix is an international underground tunnelling expert and scientific researcher, who has been at the incident site almost since the beginning of the rescue operation. He supervised the use of the American auger machine for horizontal drilling, and together with government officials also conducted an inspection of the site to find out the best way to rescue the trapped workers.

Micro-tunnelling expert Chris Cooper

Chris Cooper is a micro-tunnelling expert with decades of experience, who arrived at the site of the tunnel collapse on November 18. Cooper is a Chartered Engineer with specialisation in civil engineering infrastructure, Metro tunnels, Large Caverns, Dams, Railway, and Mining Projects. He is also the international consultant for the Rishikesh Karnprayag rail project.

12 rat-hole mining experts

A team of 12 rat-hole mining experts began manual drilling and horizontal excavation through the last 10 metres or 12 metres of rubble on Monday (November 27). They have been split into two teams of seven and five. They were called in by two private companies involved in the rescue operation.