Akshay Kumar is starring in the up-and-coming Hindi survival film, 'Mission Raniganj' in the lead role. Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, the film will also star Parineeti Chopra and is loosely based on the incident of the Raniganj Coalfields Collapse of 1989 which happened in West Bengal. Akshay Kumar plays the role of the courageous Jaswant Singh Gill who saved the lives of many miners after the collapse.
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What is the true story of Mission Raniganj?
Raniganj Coalmine was discovered by John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of East India Company in 1774. The mine is located in the Asansol and Durgapur subdivisions of Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. The licence to mine coal there was granted to the two men by Lord Warren Hastings, and thus the coal mining in India began for the first time. Regular mining at Raniganj officially began in 1820 under Alexander & Co and for the majority of the 19th and the 20th century, Raniganj was the major coal producer in the country.
Back then, because of industrial backwardness and colonial rule, mining was carried out in a haphazard manner. At the time, there were no pillars to support the mine ceilings and walls and all of the coal veins were exhausted to gather as many resources as possible. The lives of miners were extremely perilous, as they were constantly at risk of cave-ins and collapses.
On November 13, 1989, the miners working at Raniganj triggered a series of blasts to break coal walls. The blast caused the mine structure to shake and a wall in an underground area adjacent to the miners' work site cracked. This crack resulted in water flooding in and caused six miners to lose their lives. Those who were near the lift were pulled up to safety, however, 65 miners got stuck inside due to the cave-in. The water level in the pit was rising quickly and the mine structure was unstable, which created difficulties in rescuing the trapped miners.
When everyone gave up hope, Yashwant Singh Gill, a young and brave mine engineer from IIT Dhanbad, came to the rescue.
Gill designed a six-foot-high iron capsule with a diameter of 21 inches and dropped it inside by digging a new borehole. He used a 12-tonne crane to lower and lift the capsule and raised each of the 65 miners trapped inside one-by-one. The whole rescue operation took Gill 6 hours to complete and was watched by over 2,000 people. And eventually, each of the miners stuck inside the pit was saved by this smart and heroic man.
Gill describes an indescribable feeling after the last of the miners were rescued. Every year on November 16, Coal India celebrates Rescue Day to honour Gill and his bravery. For his heroic act, the then President of India, Ramaswamy Venkataraman, awarded him the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak.
The movie stars Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra, Kumud Mishra, and Ravi Kishan in lead roles and will be released nationwide on October 6, 2023. It will be captivating to see a real-life hero’s story being shown on the big screen.
Watch the trailer here:
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