Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: Escape passage mentioned in tunnel plan, but panel finds it is not there
Uttarakhand for thirteen days now, serious questions are arising on the issue of the 'escape passage'. Every document associated with the project — from tenders to geo-technical reports — mentions the project with the 'escape passage'.
Case in point, a statement by the Press Information Bureau dated February 20 announcing the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for ₹1383 crore project to build a «4.531 km long 2-Lane Bi-Directional Silkyara Bend — Barkot Tunnel with escape passage' on the Yamunotri route.
However, the expert panel appointed by the Uttarakhand government following the tunnel collapse has pointed to the absence of the 'escape passage' as a major omission, in its preliminary observations — as reported by ET.
If the 'escape passage' were in place alongsidethe tunnel construction, evacuation of the workers would have been faster, feel experts.
On the other hand, the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) officials have a different explanation to offer. A senior NHIDCL official involved in supervision of the Barkot-Silkyar tunnel project told ET that the 'escape tunnel' is essentially meant to be activated only once the tunnel road is operational for traffic.
»The escape passage will very much be there. However, it is supposed to be activated at time of operation.
The escape passage is not required or mandatory at time of construction. We are very much building the escape passage through a central partition wall, and it is halfway done as well," the official told ET.
Others involved with tunnelling projects such as former officials from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) claim that the 'escape passage' must be built alongside, parallel with the
