[1/3]Workers prepare an auger during a rescue operation after part of a tunnel under construction collapsed in Uttarkashi in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, November 14, 2023. Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force/Handout via Portal Acquires License Rights
LUCKNOW, India, Nov 14 (Portal) – Excavators began drilling with heavy equipment on Tuesday to repair a wide steel pipe that will help extract nearly 40 Indian workers trapped in a collapsed Himalayan highway tunnel , which collapsed two days ago in northern India’s Uttarakhand state.
The 4.5 km (3 mile) long tunnel, built on a national highway that is part of a popular Hindu pilgrimage route, collapsed around 5:30 a.m. Sunday (2400 GMT Saturday).
“We have provided food, water and oxygen to the trapped workers and officials are in constant touch with all of them,” said Devendra Singh Patwal, a disaster management official.
Excavators have been clearing rubble for two days to clear a path to the workers and had been waiting for the delivery of a wide steel pipe to be pushed into an opening with excavated rubble to safely pull the workers out.
Patwal said it was not easy to ascertain the time required for the withdrawal of workers.
A team of geologists from the state government and educational institutions have arrived to ascertain the cause of the accident, he added.
There were around 50 or 60 workers in the tunnel and around 10 or 20 of them got out after the end of their shift because they were closer to the exit and the rest were stuck after the collapse, the Indian Express newspaper reported, citing a construction worker there safely done.
“At first we thought it might be a minor collapse and started clearing the debris as best we could,” Rajeev Das, the worker, told the newspaper. “But we soon realized that this was a demanding search and rescue mission.”
The region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods and the incident follows land subsidence in the state that geologists, residents and officials have attributed to rapid construction in the mountains.
Work on the tunnel stretch began in 2018 and was initially expected to be completed by July 2022, which has now been pushed back to May 2024, an Indian government statement said.
Controversial project
The Char Dham pilgrimage route is one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The aim is to connect four major Hindu pilgrimage sites in northern India through an 889 km (551 mile) two-lane road being built at a cost of $1.5 billion.
However, some work was halted by local authorities after hundreds of houses were damaged by subsidence along the routes, including in Uttarakhand.
The project was criticized by environmental experts.
The project’s impact on areas along the route was not properly assessed before construction began, a report by a Supreme Court-appointed expert committee said in July 2020.
When the Supreme Court approved the Char Dham road in 2021, it said that wider roads would be beneficial for defending India’s borders.
However, it was noted that the government should take into account the concerns raised by the committee and develop a concrete strategy to protect the environment.
The panel’s head resigned last year, saying he was frustrated that the recommendations were not implemented.
The federal government has publicly stated that it used environmentally friendly techniques in the design to make geologically unstable routes safer.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told news agency ANI on Tuesday that the state will review work on all tunnels under construction to ensure they are completed safely and authorities are better prepared to deal with possible emergencies.
Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow and Tanvi Mehta in New Delhi; Edited by YP Rajesh, Stephen Coates and Shri Navaratnam
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