The 41 construction workers who were trapped for 17 days by a partial collapse of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel were discharged from hospital on Thursday evening, just as their employer announced that construction on the tunnel will restart as soon as the 60 metres of debris can be cleared.
The National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) is constructing the tunnel through the M/s Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd.
‘No reason to stop’
No one can foresee such incidents, NHIDCL director of administration and finance Anshu Manish Khalkho told The Hindu, stressing that NHIDCL has no reason to either stop the project or keep it on hold.
“We have taken a break to clear the machinery that was called to the spot for the rescue operations. Even the workers need some break and we will soon take the construction work forward,” he said, adding that the clearing of the debris is likely to take three to four months.
21 previous collapses
Asked whether NHIDCL would undertake any geological survey or safety audit before restarting the work, Mr. Khalko claimed that the construction and geological survey would go on “simultaneously”. There have been at least 21 previous collapse incidents since the project began, he acknowledged, but claimed that no one had ever been hurt in any of these incidents, maintaining that such a situation is common at tunnel construction sites.
In February 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the project to construct a 4.5 km-long two-lane bi-directional tunnel between Silkyara Bend and Barkot, with escape passages including approaches on the Dharasu-Yamunotri section.
Downplaying rat-hole miners’ role
Mr. Khalkho also disputed the claims that a team of rat-hole miners, now being celebrated across the country for completing the last leg of the Silkyara rescue operation, had dug through 18 metres of debris in 26 hours. Their digging speed is only one metre per six hours, he said.
“I dont want to take away the credit which is being given to them, but they cleared the muck that came in the way when we pushed the pipe through the auger [drilling machine],” he said.
Workers discharged from hospital
Meanwhile, the 41 workers who had been trapped in the tunnel for over 400 hours were discharged from AIIMS Rishikesh on Thursday evening, with doctors certifying that none of them had any health issues. The pictures clicked by the trapped workers inside the tunnel showed how they had survived, playing games, doing exercises and singing songs together to boost their morale which was dimming in the initial days of the collapse, before the life line pipes brought them cooked food and phones to communicate with the outside world.
Representatives of Navayuga Engineering Company representatives met the 41 workers at the hospital and gave them a cheque of ₹2 lakh, along with paid leaves. Buses from their respective states waited outside the hospital to take them home as the workers thanked the medical and rescue teams.
