The disconcerting plight of the eight workers trapped in the collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana and the massive rescue efforts should serve as a warning to all states planning tunnel roads.
Attributed to “a tectonic shift and geological faultlines giving way,” the warning applies especially to Bengaluru currently, which is bent upon building tunnel roads under the city for private vehicles to supposedly ease traffic congestion. Should we venture on such projects when experts have said it will not even meet its avowed goal of decongesting traffic as it incentivises private vehicles and not public transport?
We need to be even more worried as 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. The 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 about technical/design problems with tunnels and recommended caution. For instance, the collapse of the Silkyara Tunnel on National Highway 134 in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand in November 2023 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. 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 the 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.
In December 2024, a 33-year-old worker was killed and three others were injured when a portion of an under-construction eight-lane green overpass tunnel on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway collapsed in the Kota district of Rajasthan. 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, GV Hegde and KC Subhash Chandra, have cautioned about the hazards of undertaking Bengaluru’s Tunnel Road Project without conducting in-depth hydrogeological studies. 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) and Special Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) (Tunnel Zone), Government of lndia, titled: (1) ‘Constitution of panel of experts for tunnel projects,’ dated September 6, 2024, and (2) ‘Checklist for submission of proposals of tunnel projects for technical review in MORTH’ dated October 24, 2024, which make ElA for tunnel roads necessary.
Also, the principles of the “Precautionary Approach” and “Preventive Action” of the National Environmental Policy of 2006 underscore the importance of a detailed EIA prior to the 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 construction of the tunnel, 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 BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna in a case involving the adverse impact of haphazard urbanisation on the environment in Chandigarh. The Justices have cited an article published in India Today, titled ‘Bengaluru – How to Ruin India’s Best City’. The article depicts how the city of Bengaluru, once considered one of India’s best cities, a ‘Garden city’, has been ruined due to haphazard urban development.
The Justices ruled: “We observe that it is high time that the legislature, the executive and the policymakers 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 have therefore appealed to all policymakers “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 written to the MoEFCC raising these concerns and asking it to direct an EIA and a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) of Bengaluru’s Tunnel Road Project. Hopefully, the EIA and SIA reports will result in the 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. This article includes inputs from DT Devare, Trustee of Bengaluru Environment Trust. Views expressed here are the author’s own.