Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 22: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is undertaking safety audit of eight under-construction tunnels in Jammu and Kashmir to ensure safety and adherence to highest quality standards.
Decision in this regard was taken by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in the backdrop of collapse of under-construction Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi on November 12.
Official sources told the Excelsior that six under-construction tunnels in Ramban district and two in Jammu district were listed for the safety audit by the National Highway Authority of India.
These include two tunnels each at Marog and Digdol, one each at Cafeteria and Peera in Ramban district and two on Jammu Ring Road, sources added.
Following the decision by MoRTH, sources said NHAI Regional Director Siva Sankar along with the Project Directors and team of experts visited these tunnel sites today and took stock of the safety measures.
While elaborating, sources said that NHAI Regional Director along with Project Director Yashpal Singh Jadon and team of experts first visited tunnels on Jammu Ring Road (four tubes of 700 meters each) near Jagti and Akhnoor.
Thereafter, the NHAI team, led by Regional Director and comprising Project Director (Ramban) Parshotam Kumar, experts and others left for Ramban and conducted safety audit of the tunnels at Marog ( 4 kms each), Digdol (3 kms each), Cafeteria Morh (800 mters) and Peera (794 mters).
According to the sources, the visiting team also discussed some additional safety measures like provisioning of pipe in the under-construction tunnels.
Talking to the Excelsior, NHAI Project Director Siva Sankar expressed his satisfaction over the safety measures being adopted during the ongoing work of all these under-construction tunnels across Jammu region.
“We are observing all safety measures with real time monitoring,” he said and added that the technical report of the team will be forwarded to the headquarters very soon.
Besides Jammu and Kashmir, the safety audit of under-construction tunnels in other parts of the country is also being conducted in the backdrop of the collapse of the under-construction Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi on November 12, trapping 41 workers.
With a total length of about 79 km, the 29 under-construction tunnels are spread across the country with 12 tunnels in Himachal Pradesh, two each in Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and one each in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Delhi besides eight in J&K.
NHAI has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) to review design, drawing, and safety aspects related to tunnel construction and slope stabilisation of NHAI projects.
After inspecting the under- construction tunnel projects, NHAI teams will submit a report within seven days.
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