New Delhi: While an extremely challenging rescue operation took as many as 17 days to save the lives of 41 workers trapped inside the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand last November, a Right to Information (RTI) reply from the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) has showed that thus far, the central body has not lodged any FIR against the contractor responsible for the construction of the underpass.According to an Indian Express report based on the project’s environment impact assessment (EIA) report, the accident might have been avoided had the option of a separate escape tunnel not been ruled out during the construction due to cost and time concerns.“Instead of leaving an escape channel on the left, we put the divider in the middle of the tunnel for single-way traffic on either side. This created more space for traffic and eliminated the risk of head-on collisions,” a senior project engineer had told the newspaper. A tunnelling expert involved in the rescue operation, however, pointed out to the Indian Express that a total blockage of the Silkyara tunnel made “the positioning of the divider” immaterial and only a separate evacuation tunnel could have helped.However, on December 31, in an RTI reply, NHDCL, under the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MRTH), categorically stated that no FIR had been lodged against the contractor, Navayuga Engineering Company Limited, so far on the matter.Colonel Pradip Patil, general manager, NHDCL (Barkot), told Amravati-based RTI applicant Ajay Bose that the body is awaiting the outcome of an investigation being carried out by a committee formed by MRFTH. “The committee had visited the site between 13.12.2023 to (and) 15.12.2023 and final outcome of the investigation is yet to be published.”The Silkyara tunnel crisis came barely three months after 20 workers and engineers lost their lives on the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra’s Thane district. Navayuga was its primary contractor. In that case, an FIR was registered only against the sub-contractor “hired to construct Package 16 of Samruddhi Expressway,” the Indian Express had reported.Construction of the Silkyara tunnel is part of the Narendra Modi government’s Char Dham all-weather accessibility project.
