The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has shifted the responsibility of developing and implementing new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for tunnel safety to disaster management committees of states, instead of framing them itself.
Initially, the ministry had thought of issuing the guidelines itself after the collapse of the Silkyara tunnel in November 2023, but the ministry now wants states themselves to frame these SOPs, given the different topographies, according to officials.
"MoRTH was earlier looking to introduce the new SOPs before the start of the next financial year to ensure no slowdown in tunnel projects next year. However, following the feedback from state governments, and given the different topographies of projects and areas in the country, each state government has been asked to implement new SOPs," a senior government official said.
Emails sent to MoRTH remained unanswered till the time of publishing this report.
The government's decision to develop new SOPs for tunnel construction and rescue operations comes after questions were raised over the ambiguity in the SOPs regarding tunnels, particularly in the case of steep ones.
In November 2023, a portion of the 4.5-km-long tunnel being built in Uttarakashi between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway — a part of the Char Dham all-weather road project — caved in on November 12 following a landslide, trapping 41 workers from various parts of the country.
The workers were evacuated after a 17-day rescue operation. The construction work of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel project was restarted in February 2024.
Four states to notify SOPs soon
Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are expected to notify the new SOPs soon to ensure the continuity of ongoing projects.
In fact, the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority is set to introduce the new SOPs by next month, Vinod Kumar Suman, Uttarakhand Disaster Management secretary, told Moneycontrol.
"The proposed SOPs will apply to state, central, and joint projects within states, filling the current gap in rule sets specific to the state," Suman said.
Tunnel construction methods
The various tunnel construction methods include conventional techniques such as the drill-and-blast method (DBM), the use of tunnel boring machines (TBMs), the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) and micro-tunnelling method.
Recently, contractors have also been exploring modern techniques such as sequential excavation and ground freezing. Innovative materials, such as fibre bolts, lining stress controllers, geosynthetics and steel anchors are being used to enhance the execution of tunnelling projects.
Another government official said that it was equally important for states to strictly monitor the implementation of SOPs.
Geology reports not followed
"The biggest takeaway from the probe of the Silkyara Tunnel was that some recommendations of the geology report were not followed, and monitoring of ongoing projects need to be enhanced to avoid such incidents ," one official said.
The geology report submitted to MoRTH before the commencement of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel had stated that the proposed tunnel was to cross weak rock and adequate support structure was needed.
MoRTH, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corp Ltd (NHIDCL) had worked with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Konkan Rail Corporation (KRC), micro tunneling expert Chris Cooper and the President of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, Arnold Dix, to come up with new SOPs, following the collapse of the Silkyara tunnel in November 2023.
The NHAI had also reviewed 26 under-construction tunnel projects across the country between November 2023 and January 2024, MoRTH had informed the Lok Sabha. These under-construction tunnels, with a total length of over 70 km, are spread over different locations across the country, including Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
"The central government has passed on the recommendations suggested by the team of experts that was created last year to state bodies and has asked them to ensure that the recommendations are covered in the new SOPs that will be notified," an official said.
He added that the recommendations include accurately identifying the shear zone of projects and ensuring a safer methodology for carrying out construction work .
They also make it mandatory for tunnel projects to have adequate sensors and instruments to capture ground behaviour.
What is shear zone?
Shear zone refers to an area of highly deformed, weak and thinned rocks due to regional stress. Such zones require special attention, closer monitoring of ground behaviour and more support.
It was also recommended that the need to set up a tunnel centre for roads and railways, developing a new SOP for tunnel safety and a "geological collaborative framework" on the Gati Shakti platform for better planning and execution of projects, particularly in the Himalayan region.
PM Gati Shakti - National Mission Plan, launched on October 13, 2021, is a geographic information system-enabled platform that integrates the data on infrastructure like roads, railway lines, ports, inland waterways, telecom lines and power lines onto a single portal. The NMP platform enables integrated planning for multimodal logistics and supports data-based decision-making.
The Silkyara tunnel is part of the government’s Char Dham Pariyojana to improve connectivity to four pilgrimage sites in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. It is being constructed by the NHIDCL.
NHAI member Vishal Chauhan had, on November 28, said that once rescue operations are completed, the government will carry out an audit of all tunnel projects and also take lessons from the Silkyara tunnel operations to come out with new SOPs.
"We will learn the lessons from this too and see how we can improve our SOPs and how we can improve our designs to make these projects safer," Chauhan had said.
The tunnel guidelines stipulate the steps for rapid evacuation in the event of haulage failure. However, officials say that the railways is the only entity mandated to construct escape micro tunnels with stairs, given the presence of rail tracks on the surface. For two-lane tunnels, the SOP lacks clarity on whether steps for quick exit are mandatory.
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