THE INDIAN EXPRESS, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2023 OUT AFTER 400 HOURS IN A TUNNEL ‘I first thought of home… Will I be able to see my family again?’ Allu Arjun movies, card games, murmura and muffled voices from outside. Rajendra Bedia, one of the 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel, spoke to ABHISHEK ANGAD on what kept them going during those 17 days before they were rescued in an unprecedented operation N HIS small backpack, he kept three pairs of clothes, his Aadhaar card, The journey out of home On a weekday afternoon, Bedia and eight others from the village hired a Tempo Traveller to Barkakana railway station in the Under-construction tunnel partially collapses, leaving 41 workers trapped Excavators used to remove debris, but efforts slowed as more debris fall Auger machine brought in to drill a passage to the workers A bigger, US-made auger machine brought in after the earlier one fails Slow, steady progress made in the drilling, with 9 metres of the total 57 At 22-metre mark, drilling stops as machine fails.
Another one flown in curry once a week, and chickpeas and vegetables the rest of the days. ‘Felt like an earthquake’ The work was hard. His first day of work involved going into the cavernous tunnel and assisting with the plumbing and masonry. “I had never worked in mountainous areas before so the tunnel seemed scary at first. But I got used to it,” says Bedia, who worked 12hour shifts every day.
He was promised Rs 19,000 and two days off work a month. That morning on November 12, Bedia was on the night shift, when around 5 am, came the most deafening blast. “I was near the area that collapsed, assisting the mason who was working on the arch of the tunnel. It was as if an earthquake had struck. The tunnel was filled with smoke and dust and it was difficult to breathe,” says Bedia, adding that when he finally opened his eyes, he saw his fellow workers looking as stunned, each of them shrouded in dust.
Moments later, some of the workers rushed to the mouth of the tunnel, which was now a giant mound of debris. Some tried claw through the mound, but gave up. As the initial panic gave way to despondency, everyone sat numbed by the enormity of what had struck them. “I first thought of home, family… How did I end up here? Will I be able to see my father again? Who would feed my family, take care of them?
Will they ever get to know what happened to me? And if they did, how will they react? Where will they go for help?,” recalls Bedia. Card games & phone calls The situation demanded a hero, at least a leader. Luckily for Bedia and the others, there was “Negi ji” — foreman Gabbar Singh Negi, around 45, the most senior among them, who kept them motivated and told them not to lose hope.
Negi’s stories of how he has been in a similar situation in the past — trapped for several days after a landslide in Sikkim — gave Bedia and the others hope. Luckily for them, the debris had left intact the electricity supply lines and a 4-inch water pipe used to drain water out of the tun- nel — something that would prove to be a lifesaver for the first few days. Someone in the group suggested that they intermittently pump out water through this pipe, a way of letting the outside world know they are alive.
The idea clicked, kicking off an unprecedented rescue operation involving multiple agencies. Inside, it had been more than 24 hours since anyone had eaten. Some had dozed off, others walked around restlessly. Suddenly, almost magically, around 3 am on November 13, they heard muffled sounds from the pipe through which they had sent water out. Soon, there were voices — someone on the other side assured them that they would be out.
“That was the first time we spoke to someone outside,” says Bedia, “Though we could not hear them too well or speak to them, we finally felt safe. We knew everyone was working to get us out.” Minutes later, something else came out of the pipe — puffed rice (murmura) and cardamom seeds pushed through by the rescuers. Eyes lit up and everyone crowded around the pipe. “The murmura was dirty, had mixed with the dirt in the tunnel.
We spread it out on Geosheets (a geosynthetic material used in construction work), cleaned it somewhat by rubbing it on our shirts and ate it,” says Bedia. Later, the rescuers outside sent boiled chickpeas through the pipe. When there was no food to be sent, the pipe pumped in the There was no dearth of water, though, in the tunnel — two kilometres beyond where they were stuck was water seeping through the mountains.
They used a vehicle inside the tunnel to ferry and collect water in a jar. “We used the same water for drinking, bathing and cleaning up,” says Bedia. Ten days later, on November 21, a bigger, six-inch pipe pushed its way through the debris. Through this pipe, the rescuers sent paneer biryani, khichdi and fruits — and, at 3.53 am, an endoscopic camera. This was the first time the world got to see the men trapped inside.
“The rescuers asked us what we needed. We said we need chargers so that we can play games to keep ourselves busy.” Now, there was so much food that the men could barely finish all of it. “We were thrilled. Until then, we had only been eating murmura. Food has never tasted this good. We ate and ate,” says Bedia, adding that the rescuers outside kept them updated about the operations outside — the auger machine, the progress it had made before breaking down and the rathole miners who were being brought in.
“They told us even if the rescue takes a month or two, we will be out,” he says. The rescuers also sent a wire with a microphone and speakers connected to it. This is how Bedia and the others chatted with the rescuers above and, later, with their family As the days stretched on, Bedia and the others slipped into a routine. The initial anxiety had worn off and they were now 41 “friends” brought together by a strange twist of fate.
Nights were spent on the tunnel floor, with the construction material coming in handy. “We slept on Geosheets and also wrapped it around ourselves when we felt cold,” he says. The group also played games on their phones, but it was their improvised card games that were a big hit. Bedia bonded with Sukram, Anil (both from his village) and Manjeet from Uttar Pradesh over ‘Raja, Mantri, Chor, Sipahi’, a card game with four players that involves a hot chase for the chor (thief).
“Negi ji carried a lot of papers with him. We used that to play card games. We had a lot of fun. We spoke about our lives in the village, how we danced at weddings, and made fun of each other. Sukram ended up being the ‘chor’ several times, but we almost never guessed it right,” says Bedia. The other workers too used Negi’s sheets to play card games. “They cut the sheets into small rectangular shapes and made 52 cards with symbols of spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts.
We all had a lot of fun… we also played a game called Call-Break,” says Bedia, who also watched reruns of Allu Arjun’s movies on his phone. He says that once they got the chargers and power banks, they could use their phones freely. As Negi ji encouraged the group to watch their hygiene and mental health, the workers would walk over a kilometre inside the tunnel. At a demarcated area, they would relieve themselves and cover it up with soil.
Negi had also assigned specific tasks to the workers – small groups tasked with cleanliness, keeping a tab on the food and so on. Bedia was in charge of bringing water from the other end of the tunnel. “The walks and the bonding helped. We all slept peacefully at night,” says Bedia. There were occasional moments when one among them would panic, but the others stepped in to reassure them.
“We knew that since we were 41 of us, something must be happening to bring us out alive. The setbacks that the rescuers faced didn’t matter to us. We prayed and we knew we would come out safely,” says Bedia. As drilling halts, rescuers consider other ways of reaching the workers 5-point plan, involving 5 govt agencies creating paths from different sides of the tunnel put into action Rescuers push through 6-inch food pipe to send supplies to the workers Contact made through camera sent in via supply pipe.
Drilling resumes Rescuers get 42 metres into the debris Out at last By the afternoon of November 28, the hammering got louder. Outside, the rat-miners were at work, having stepped in after the auger machine had broken. A little before 8 pm, the moment they had been waiting for finally arrived. A rat-miner stuck his head out and the workers erupted “We pulled him towards us. We hugged each other, clicked pictures.
The rescue pipe was large enough for a person like me. I jumped over it, bent my body and walked towards the exit. It seemed like a five-minute walk, and I was finally outside,” Bedia recalls. There were more hugs outside, a group of doctors pulled them aside to monitor their blood pressure, and they were herded into an ambulance. As the lights and the cameras followed them, there were smiles all around.
“It was a reception I will never forget,” he says. Once the health check-ups at AIIMS Rishikesh are done, Bedia will soon go home. But that’s when the “real worry” will set in. “There are no jobs in Jharkhand. What will I do there? Though I know my family will insist that I stay back, do I have an option but to go where my work takes me?” Another setback as auger machine gets damaged after hitting girders Working for nearly 24 hours, rescuers repair machine, strengthen platform and resume drilling Major setback as auger joint of the machine breaks, blocking the passage created so far Plasma cutter brought in to cut drill blade and remove it before beginning ‘Rat-hole miners’, brought in to manually drill through the remaining 12 metres, start work Breakthrough, as rescuers reach trapped workers.
Efforts on to bring