Tunnel rescue heroes: Who are Munna Qureshi and Arnold Dix?

After a 17-day ordeal, there was light at the end of the tunnel, literally, for the 41 workers trapped under the rubble of the caved-in Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi, when rat-role miners broke through the rubble, paving the way for their rescue.

Among the rescuers, two faces have stood out prominently – that of rat-hole mining expert Munna Qureshi, who reached the trapped workers first, and international tunnelling expert Arnold Dix, a familiar face at the rescue site who gave hope to the families of the trapped men and several Indians waiting for them to come out alive.

Who is Munna Qureshi?

Qureshi, 29, was among the 12 rat-hole miners who were sent to burrow through the 10-12 metres of the tunnel debris which a sophisticated auger machine couldn’t penetrate.

He was also the first to break down the last rock between his team and the trapped workers and crossed over meet them.

“I removed the last rock and I saw them. Then, I went to the other side. They hugged me, cheered in applause and thanked me,” Qureshi told reporters after the rescue was completed.

Qureshi, who works for a trenchless engineering services company in Delhi that clears sewer and water lines, said his team worked tirelessly for 24 hours at a stretch – beginning their digging at 3 pm on Monday and finishing it by 6 pm on Tuesday – to reach the trapped workers.

“I can’t express my happiness. I have done this for my fellow workers. The respect they have given us, I can’t forget my whole life,” he said.

While the government had put in place multiple rescue plans to get to the trapped workers out of the tunnel, officials had to turn to rat-hole miners as the last resort to dig through the rubble after the auger machine deployed there malfunctioned.

Rat-hole mining is a controversial technique as it involves manually digging through debris and was originally used to mine coal by digging narrow trenches. It was deemed unscientific and dangerous and banned in 2014.

Monu Kumar, Feroze, Parsadi Lodhi, Wakeel Khan, and Vipin Rajout were the other rat-hole mining experts who dug through the rubble to reach the trapped workers.

These men were accorded a hero’s welcome both inside and outside for reaching the last mile of the tricky rescue operation. As a mark of gratitude they were hugged by the rescued workers, lifted on their shoulders and given almonds.

“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,” Feroze told PTI.

“The labourers thanked and hugged me. They also lifted me on their shoulders,” he said.

The miners stayed and interacted with the trapped men for around half an hour before an NDRF team took over the operation.

Who is Arnold Dix?

Many following the rescue operations may be familiar with Dix’s name and face, as he was the one who promised to bring the trapped workers out by Christmas.

Among the world’s leading experts on underground tunnelling, the Australian is a professor, a barrister and the president of the 79-nation International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association in Switzerland.

Dix specialises in underground and transportation infrastructure including construction risk, and technical issues related to safety performance and provides advice on risks associated with underground construction.

He was roped in for the rescue operation at the Silkyara Tunnel site on November 20 for expert advice after initial efforts to drill through the debris hit roadblocks.

Since joining the rescue mission, Dix’s job has been to coordinate with multiple agencies working at the site, giving inputs to rescue teams entering the tunnel and briefing the media on the progress of the operation.

Dix from the beginning had rejected the idea that the area where the collapse occurred was actually prone to such risks.

“It may have been an unusual situation occurring here where the class of rock changes. It has to be investigated. The area that collapsed hadn’t collapsed before; it wasn’t even given any clue that it was going to collapse before. So, it is a part of the challenge for us – what is it about the ground here, this mountain that caught us on the back foot,” he had told reporters.

While he didn’t promise a deadline within which the workers will be rescued, Dix was, however, certain that the operation will be successful and the trapped labourers will be home by Christmas.

On Tuesday, a day after the trapped workers were rescued, Dix told reporters that he has kept his promise to bring them out by Christmas.

#WATCH | Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) tunnel rescue | On the successful rescue of all 41 workers from the Silkyara tunnel, international tunnelling expert Arnold Dix says, "It's been my honour to serve, and as a parent, it's been my honour to help out all the parents getting their… pic.twitter.com/3A7rqf02VR

— ANI (@ANI) November 29, 2023

“Remember, I had said 41 people will be home, and no one gets hurt, by Christmas. Christmas is coming early. We were calm and we knew exactly what we wanted. We worked as a wonderful team. India has the best engineers. It was a joy to be part of this successful mission,” ANI quoted him as saying.

The ‘hero’ earned more fans after a video of him praying at a makeshift temple near the tunnel went viral.

“I have to go to the temple because I promised to say thank you for what happened. If you haven’t notice, we have just witnessed a miracle,” he told reporters.