The disconcerting plight of the eight workers trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telengana after its collapse due to “a tectonic shift and geological faultlines giving way”, and the massive efforts needed to rescue them serve as a warning to all states planning tunnel roads.
This applies especially to Karnataka, which is bent upon building underground tunnel roads in Bengaluru for private vehicles to supposedly ease traffic congestion. Should we venture on such projects at all when experts have said that the project will not even meet its avowed goal of decongesting traffic as it incentivises private vehicles and not public transport?
What is more worrisome is that this project is being taken up even without an ‘Environment Impact Assessment’ (EIA) and ground-level studies of the geological hazards along the proposed routes. Cause for worry is that proposals for tunnel roads could claim exemption, as the Bengaluru project does, from even carrying out an EIA as it does not come explicitly under the list of Category 1 and Category 2 projects requiring an EIA in the notification of 2006 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
However, many news reports have been published which talk about technical/design problems with tunnels and recommend caution. For instance, the collapse of the Silkyara Tunnel on National Highway 134 in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand in November 2023 had necessitated a massive rescue effort to reach 41 construction workers who were luckily rescued with the help of rat-hole miners. Resultantly, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been ordered to undertake a safety audit of all 29 under-construction tunnels across the country.
Also read: The Silkyara Tunnel Collapse Reminds Us Exactly How Contentious the Char Dham Project Is
The final report on the Silkyara tunnel collapse has found negligence by the entity that prepared the DPR. It said the fixing of alignment did not meet basic principles of tunnelling to address the issue of 21 minor collapses.
In a report, a PWD official has said that the ambitious Pragati Maidan (New Delhi) tunnel project, which was completed at a cost of Rs 777 crore and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2022, cannot be repaired and needs total overhaul. As per another report, a 33-year-old worker was killed and three others were injured in December 2024 when a portion of an under-construction eight-lane green overpass tunnel on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway collapsed in Kota district of Rajasthan.
Also read: After G20 Fanfare, Pragati Maidan Tunnel Now Seen as ‘Potential Threat to Passengers’: Report
A team of Japanese experts conducted an in-depth inspection of Tunnel No 2 on the Pandoh-Takoli bypass, part of the Kiratpur-Manali four-lane project, to understand the causes behind the cracks that appeared at the tunnel’s entrance during the 2023 rain disaster and to assess the safety of the tunnel. Two hydrogeologists, Mr. G.V. Hegde and Mr. K.C. Subhash Chandra, have cautioned about the hazards of undertaking Bengaluru’s Tunnel Road Project without conducting in-depth hydrogeological studies in a recent article.
The above examples indicate that the technology/expertise to build tunnel roads is still evolving in India.
However, two documents have been issued recently by the Director General (Road Development) & Special Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) (Tunnel Zone), Government of lndia, titled: (1) “Constitution of panel of experts for tunnel projects”, dated 6th September 2024, and (2) “Checklist for submission of proposals of tunnel projects for technical review in MORTH” dated 24th October 2024, which make ElA for tunnel roads necessary.
Also, the principles of “precautionary approach” and “preventive action” of the National Environmental Policy of 2006 underscore the importance of a detailed EIA prior to commencement of any construction to ensure the safety of human beings and the environment. The “precautionary approach” emphasises that “where there are credible threats of serious or irreversible damage to key environmental resources, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation”.
The “preventive action” approach makes it preferable to prevent environmental damage from occurring in the first place, rather than attempting to restore degraded environmental resources after the fact.
In this context, Kerala’s State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), which advises the government on environmental clearance for development projects at the state level, has given the green signal to the controversial Anakkampoyil-Kalladi-Meppadi Twin Tube Tunnel Road project. The approval comes with 25 stringent conditions for the tunnel’s construction which is in a highly ecologically sensitive, landslide-prone region. This has prompted civic activists to protest against the approval calling it an ‘eyewash’ to please the state government.
Of particular significance for Bengaluru in this regard is a judgement of the Supreme Court dated January 10, 2023, delivered by Justices B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna in a case involving adverse impact of haphazard urbanisation on the environment in Chandigarh. The Justices cited an article published in the weekly magazine India Today, dated October 24, 2022.
The article depicts how the city of Bengaluru, once considered to be one of India’s best cities, a ‘Garden city’, has been ruined on account of haphazard urban development. The Justices ruled, “We observe that it is high time that the Legislature, the Executive and the Policy Makers at the Centre as well as at the State levels take note of the damage to the environment on account of haphazard developments and take a call to take necessary measures to ensure that the development does not damage the environment.”
They appealed to all policy makers “to make necessary provisions for carrying out Environmental Impact Assessment studies before permitting urban development”.
The “Alliance for Sustainable Urban Priorities”, a coalition of six civil society organisations and concerned individuals of Bengaluru, has also written to the MoEFCC raising these concerns and asking it to direct an EIA and SIA of Bengaluru’s Tunnel Road Project. If the EIA and SIA reports come through, we can hope for less hazardous, cheaper and more effective measures for decongesting Bengaluru’s traffic being taken up, giving the go-by to the proposed tunnel road project.
Kathyayini Chamaraj is the executive trustee of CIVIC-Bangalore. She acknowledges inputs from Mr. D.T. Devare, Trustee of Bengaluru Environment Trust.
