Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel project to continue after repair: Official
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, November 29
The Silkyara tunnel project in Uttarakhand will continue after the necessary safety audit and repair of the broken structure, a senior Road Ministry official said on Wednesday.
The ambitious Rs 12,000-crore project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — in Uttarakhand.
Moments after the 41 workers were brought out of the tunnel, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced carrying out safety audit of under-construction road tunnels in the country.
Giving an update on the proposed audit, ministry officials on Wednesday said the Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited were being roped in by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for conducting the safety audit of under-construction road tunnels.
The officials said the audit would begin “within next seven to ten days” in all 29 under-construction tunnels in the country spread across 10 states.
Maimum number of under-construction road tunnels – 12 – are in Himachal Pradesh
followed by six in J&K. Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan have two under-construction road tunnels each.
Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Delhi have one road tunnel each, they said.
“The NHAI is in the process of mobilising a team to carry out the safety audit of the tunnels. Experts from Konkan Railway and DMRCL are being roped in,” the sources said.
All-weather road
The ambitious Rs 12,000-crore project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — in Uttarakhand
