Arnold Dix brings Silkyara rescue lessons to Nepal flood tunnel search

Kathmandu,UPDATED: Sep 7, 2026 11:38 IST

Australian tunnel expert Arnold Dix, who helped rescue 41 workers from Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in 2023, said on Monday that experience was guiding him in Nepal as he continued a complex search-and-rescue operation after devastating floods. Dix said the operation had taught him to "never to confuse unlikely with impossible".

Dix arrived in Nepal on Saturday to help in the search for people believed to be trapped inside the Chilime hydropower tunnel after floods along the Bhotekoshi River on August 26. He has been working with Nepali and Indian experts to assess the tunnel and revise plans to reach the underground powerhouse, where people are believed to have possibly taken refuge.

The search at Chilime is part of a wider rescue effort after catastrophic flooding along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor in Nepal, which has left hundreds dead and thousands missing. Dix said the situation had reminded him of the Silkyara operation, where 41 construction workers were trapped underground after part of the tunnel collapsed in November 2023 and were rescued alive after 17 days in a multi-agency operation.

Referring to that rescue, Dix said in a post on X on Monday, "We had one seemingly impossible task: bring them home alive. We passed that test together." At Silkyara, rescue workers eventually reached the trapped men through a 60-metre escape passage after rat-hole mining experts manually dug through the final stretch of rubble. The workers were then taken out one by one through a steel chute and rushed to hospital.

Dix said the Nepal operation was different because rescuers were dealing with several possible rescue sites at the same time. "Not one rescue -- but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved," he wrote. Reflecting on Silkyara, he said, "Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible." He also said Nepal was facing a challenge unlike any he had encountered before, with multiple potential rescues unfolding simultaneously at different locations.

The operation has also brought Dix back together with some of the Indian personnel he worked with during the Silkyara rescue, including Colonel Parikshit Mehra, who is leading the Indian Army and Disaster Response Force team deployed at the Nepal site, The Kathmandu Post reported. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava said on Sunday that the Indian and Nepali technical teams were continuing work inside the Chilime tunnel despite difficult access, slush and heavy debris.

In a post on X, Srivastava said, "Despite challenging conditions of limited & poor access, slush and heavy debris, the Indian & Nepali joint technical team continue to make progress in the tunnel with hard manual work." He said the teams had also started establishing rope connectivity from Syafrubesi to the tunnel to facilitate the induction of more personnel, while work on a temporary road towards the tunnel was progressing, with around 950 metres cleared.

Dix said the Nepal operation was also testing the willingness of rescue teams to continue despite uncertainty over the outcome. "Hope must become discipline, compassion must become action, and duty cannot depend upon certainty of success," he wrote. He added, "We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon," summing up a rescue effort that remains focused on reaching those believed to be trapped after the floods.

With PTI Inputs

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