Video: Emotional Sunny Deol Hugs Uttarakhand Tunnel Rescue Heroes

Actor Sunny Deol got emotional today after hearing the story of a man who helped in the Silkyara tunnel rescue operation in Uttarakhand at the NDTV Indian Of The Year awards this evening. NDTV today honoured the rat-hole miners who played a vital role in evacuating 41 workers trapped in the tunnel. One of the miners narrated how they chipped in when the machines had failed to reach the trapped workers.

"We told them that we will do the job in 24-36 hours. But, in today's day and age people believe more in diploma than in experience," said the miner. They also spoke about the daily hardships that they go through even after doing a great deed.

Sunny Deol teared up while hearing the stories of the real life heroes. He walked up to the stage and hugged the miners. He was later seen clicking selfies with them.

The 41 workers were stuck in a part of the tunnel for seventeen days after its partial collapse on November 12 last year.

The rat-hole miners manually drilled the final stretch of about 15 metres through the debris in the collapsed part of the tunnel to prepare an escape passage made of steel pipes for the trapped workers. The 'rat hole' mining process was banned by the Supreme Court in 2014 for being unsafe and causing environmental pollution.

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 larger drills also broke down repeatedly after hitting metal obstacles, specifically steel rods from the collapsed tunnel structure. This forced more pauses while laser cutters were deployed.