Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Some good news at last
Tuesday, November 21 which was the 10th day since 41 workers were trapped following the tunnel collapse in Uttarkashi, brought in some good news at last.
One was the workers appearing on camera for the first time since being trapped. The camera was slid in through a six-inch wide pipe meant for food, water and medicine supplies. The pipe was pushed through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel on Monday.
The second was Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), saying, after reviewing the videos, that there was sufficient water and oxygen inside and ample space for them to move around, which came as a relief to the family members anxiously waiting outside.
The tunnel is part of the Char Dham Highway Project, which has been engulfed in controversy right from the time it was begun a few years ago because of the fragile nature of the Himalayan mountain range which are being dug through to construct the 12-metre wide highway. There have been disasters in the project earlier too.
In fact, a Supreme Court-monitored project committee had submitted, after extensive field surveys, a report warning against the project and insisting on several measures to be taken if the project must be gone ahead with, measures which were ignored.
As per various media reports, the Central and Uttarakhand governments are working on half-a-dozen action plans, including horizontal and vertical drilling to create additional rescue passages, to get the workers out, who got trapped on November 12.
Meanwhile, in a related tragedy, a truck carrying some pipes and drilling machines for the rescue operation fell into a 100-metr deep gorge in the Narendranagar area of Tehri district in Uttarakhand on Monday afternoon, killing the driver.
