As 41 workers continue to be trapped under the rubble of the collapse Uttarakhand tunnel for over 160 hours, a report has flagged serious lapses in construction of the tunnel. According to an NDTV report, an escape tunnel with pipe roofing was there in the planned blueprint of the project but it was not constructed.

Also, not having an escape tunnel was against the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) while building tunnels over 3 km long. According to the SOP, all tunnels over 3 km long should have an escape route to rescue people in case of emergency situations like this.

The report further claimed that the map shows such an escape route was also planned for the 4.5 km Silkyara tunnel, but it was not built by the company responsible for the construction of the tunnel project.

Following the collapse of the tunnel, authorities are now racing to save the trapped workers by using alternative methods. They are drilling a hole, wide enough for a 900 mm pipe to rescue the workers.

However, the ongoing operation to rescue 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed Silkyara-Polgaon tunnel in Uttarkashi was stopped on Saturday night as the drilling machine was obstructed by heavy boulders under the debris. New machine brought from Indore is yet to resume drilling.

Officials engaged in rescue operations confirmed that escape passage work was halted in the night for safety reasons as drilling could not move forward beyond 24 meters. According to the officials, the obstructed machine started shaking the earth around it and the tunnel developed cracks.

Only four 900 mm steel pipes were pushed inside the debris while efforts to connect the fifth pipe failed as the machine could not drill further for obstruction caused most likely by a big boulder or possible machine buried under the debris.

“The drilling work for making an escape passage to reach the workers had to be stopped on Friday night due to safety reasons. Some safety issues cropped up in the night as the drilling machine was unable to move forward due to physical obstructions,” District Magistrate Abhishek Ruhlea told The Statesman.

“It’s difficult to say exactly about the identity of the obstruction. Only investigation can reveal it,” he said, informing that the “second machine airlifted from Indore is being staged to resume the escape passage work again. Other measures are also being weighed to bring out the trapped workers.”