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Uttarakhand tunnel rescue
On 12 November 2023, a section of the Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel, planned to connect National Highway 134 in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India, caved in during construction. The collapse occurred at around 05:30 IST and trapped 41 workers inside the tunnel.
Rescue operations were immediately launched, with a number of government agencies involved, including the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force, Uttarakhand Police, engineers from the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, and Project Shivalik of the Border Roads Organisation. Numerous private resources were utilized in the rescue efforts as well, including Australian tunnelling experts Arnold Dix and Chris Cooper.
Though the initial attempts at a rescue were complicated because of the kinds of debris created in the collapse, the government brought in "rat-hole" miners who were able to use manual mining methods to get an access pipe to the trapped workers. All 41 workers were rescued, and the collapse triggered a safety audit of other tunnels in the area.
The Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel was being constructed by contentious Navayuga Engineering Construction Limited (NECL) under National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) as part of the Char Dham project, intended to connect important Hindu pilgrim sites in Uttarakhand, North India, with two-lane, all-weather paved roads. The tunnel was located on the Yamunotri end of National Highway 134, which is planned to connect Dharasu on the south end to Yamunotri on the north end. The tunnel is planned to be 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) long and will shorten the route by about 20 kilometres (12 mi).
The initial tender for the development project did not anticipate the complexity of building tunnels in this specific geography. Because the Himalayas are a very young mountain formation, and this particular section of the Himalayas has a mix of different rock types with different levels of strength, the construction has encountered multiple collapses and other faults. Landslides have also been increasing in recent decades as construction increases, and this is expected to get more complicated as climate change increases the intensity of rain and glacial melt flooding events.
At approximately 5:30 12 November 2023, whilst under construction, a section of the Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel collapsed, trapping 41 construction workers inside, who were reprofiling 260m to 265m inside the tunnel from Silkyara portal. The 60 meter-long blockage occurred from a point about 200 metres (660 ft) from the entrance of the tunnel inwards. A team of geologists from the state government of Uttarakhand and educational institutions was sent to the location to determine the cause of the incident. According to investigators, the tunnel had no escape shafts for evacuation in an emergency and was built along a line which crosses a geological fault.
The tunnel's location is in proximity to the main central thrust of the Himalayas which is a major geological fault and is generally accepted to be a shear zone. The Border Roads Organisation said in a statement that the tunnel was being constructed in an extremely weak rock mass constituting meta-siltstone and phyllites.
The state government launched Operation Zindagi ("life") to save the trapped workers.[citation needed] On 16 November, another horizontal drilling machine with an auger bit (to install an 800mm escape pipe) was disassembled and flown from Delhi in three parts after the progress of the first machine was insufficiently speedy. The rescue team had contacted the team that freed the students from the 2018 Tham Luang cave disaster in Thailand.
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Uttarakhand tunnel rescue
On 12 November 2023, a section of the Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel, planned to connect National Highway 134 in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India, caved in during construction. The collapse occurred at around 05:30 IST and trapped 41 workers inside the tunnel.
Rescue operations were immediately launched, with a number of government agencies involved, including the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force, Uttarakhand Police, engineers from the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, and Project Shivalik of the Border Roads Organisation. Numerous private resources were utilized in the rescue efforts as well, including Australian tunnelling experts Arnold Dix and Chris Cooper.
Though the initial attempts at a rescue were complicated because of the kinds of debris created in the collapse, the government brought in "rat-hole" miners who were able to use manual mining methods to get an access pipe to the trapped workers. All 41 workers were rescued, and the collapse triggered a safety audit of other tunnels in the area.
The Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel was being constructed by contentious Navayuga Engineering Construction Limited (NECL) under National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) as part of the Char Dham project, intended to connect important Hindu pilgrim sites in Uttarakhand, North India, with two-lane, all-weather paved roads. The tunnel was located on the Yamunotri end of National Highway 134, which is planned to connect Dharasu on the south end to Yamunotri on the north end. The tunnel is planned to be 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) long and will shorten the route by about 20 kilometres (12 mi).
The initial tender for the development project did not anticipate the complexity of building tunnels in this specific geography. Because the Himalayas are a very young mountain formation, and this particular section of the Himalayas has a mix of different rock types with different levels of strength, the construction has encountered multiple collapses and other faults. Landslides have also been increasing in recent decades as construction increases, and this is expected to get more complicated as climate change increases the intensity of rain and glacial melt flooding events.
At approximately 5:30 12 November 2023, whilst under construction, a section of the Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel collapsed, trapping 41 construction workers inside, who were reprofiling 260m to 265m inside the tunnel from Silkyara portal. The 60 meter-long blockage occurred from a point about 200 metres (660 ft) from the entrance of the tunnel inwards. A team of geologists from the state government of Uttarakhand and educational institutions was sent to the location to determine the cause of the incident. According to investigators, the tunnel had no escape shafts for evacuation in an emergency and was built along a line which crosses a geological fault.
The tunnel's location is in proximity to the main central thrust of the Himalayas which is a major geological fault and is generally accepted to be a shear zone. The Border Roads Organisation said in a statement that the tunnel was being constructed in an extremely weak rock mass constituting meta-siltstone and phyllites.
The state government launched Operation Zindagi ("life") to save the trapped workers.[citation needed] On 16 November, another horizontal drilling machine with an auger bit (to install an 800mm escape pipe) was disassembled and flown from Delhi in three parts after the progress of the first machine was insufficiently speedy. The rescue team had contacted the team that freed the students from the 2018 Tham Luang cave disaster in Thailand.