Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday honoured 12 rat-hole miners who played a vital role in the rescue of 41 workers trapped at the Silkyara tunnel.
The rat-hole miners had manually drilled the final stretch of about 15 metres through the debris in the collapsed part of the tunnel in claustrophobic conditions to prepare an escape passage made of MS steel pipes for the trapped workers.
Dhami offered each of them cheques of Rs 50,000 and shawls.
The chief minister praised them for working in difficult conditions without caring for their own lives. Rat-hole miners made a huge contribution to making the Silkyara rescue operation a success, he said.
The rat-hole miners also thanked the chief minister for honouring them, and said they considered themselves lucky to get a role to play along with various other agencies in saving the lives of the trapped workers.
Rat-hole mining was the last strategy adopted by the rescuers after several attempts to reach the workers with the help of auger machines failed to produce the desired results.
The workers remained locked up in a part of the tunnel for 17 days after its partial collapse on November 12. A multi-agency rescue operation finally led to their safe evacuation on November 29.
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