Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 10:13am on 21 Feb 2024,Wednesday India
A panel investigating November's Silkyara tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand has identified deficiencies in the project's planning. Forty-one workers were trapped for 17 days behind 60m of debris when part of the 4.5km tunnel collapsed. The probe found the design lacked detailed geotechnical and geophysical studies. It said there was no escape route or alarm system, and monitoring was inadequate. The panel called for a safety audit, stressing safety should not be compromised for deadlines. It said more investigations into local conditions should have been done before construction. The primitive rat-hole mining method was used to rescue the trapped workers. The panel highlighted failures in planning that may have contributed to the collapse.
