Railway tunnel at Rudraprayag caves in with several labourers running for safety
After the Silkyara tunnel tragedy in which more than forty one labourers were stuck in for several days when a portion of it caved in on November 2023, on Tuesday a portion of the railway tunnel caved in Rudraprayag district of Garhwal with massive silt and filthy water flowing in uncontrollably leading to panic and fear among the workers who immediately tried to rescue each other and came out of tunnel.
According to the news reports this shocking incident occured inside the emergency tunnel of the 7B package located 1.5 kilometres from Jawadi police post in the night at 11.30 PM.
While this tunnel is the part of the ambitious railway project from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag in which there is 83 % of the alignments running through tunnels out of total 125 kilometres distance. This include 16 main tunnels and twelve escape tunnels covering 213 kms of total tunneling.
The Sikyara tunnel though was the part of the All weather road projects.
When this cave in occured, the work inside the railway tunnel was going on in full swing and when the tunnel broke with water, stones and silt flowing in desperately, the construction workers have to run for safety.
According to the deputy Superintendent of Police ( DSP) upon receiving information about the collapse, all relevant agencies were put on high alert said the DSP Mr. Pundir.
‘Emergency measures were enacted immediately to ensure the safety of those on-site.” Said Pundir Sir.
Earlier on number of ocassions whether on all weather road projects or the Railway project the eminent environmentalists have long called for stringent monitoring and geological surveys to prevent such structural failures.
While in conversation with the Uknationews
Anoop Nautiyal, founder of the Social Development for Communities (SDC)
foundation-an organisation consistently vocal on environmental and regional issues in Uttarakhand said that large-scale infrastructure projects in the fragile
Himalayan region are actually encroaching upon the sensitive environmental natural treasure which they should not. “The Silkyara tunnel collapse was not just a local incident, it served as a warning signal for operators of similar ongoing projects across the entire country” Nautiyal stated. He added that the government must look at this latest collapse in Karnaprayag as yet another urgent reminder that the current approach to construction in these geologically sensitive zones remains fraught with risk.” Nautiyal have been regularly aesrung people of Uttarakhand including the government agencies to be alert and avoid playing with the already fragile environment of Uttarakhand but unfortunately the dead ears of the government never learn lessons from him.
