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.<\/p>\n
All the 41 workers were rescued on Tuesday<\/strong> evening after 17 days of a multi-agency operation conducted by the central and state governments.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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, told PTI<\/em>.<\/p>\n “The labourers thanked and hugged me. They also lifted me on their shoulders,” he said, adding that he was happier than the rescued workers.<\/p>\n Qureshi is an employee of the Delhi-based Rockwell Enterprises and an expert in tunnelling work.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n He said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel went inside the tunnel after them.<\/p>\n “We came back only after the NDRF personnel arrived,” Kumar said.<\/p>\n “We are very happy that we were part of this historic operation,” he added.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n He also said they did not charge any money for taking part in the rescue operation.<\/p>\n