The Hindu : Front Page : Over 70 trapped in cave-in at Tehri dam

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Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

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Over 70 trapped in cave-in at Tehri dam

By Purnima S. Tripathi

AGAINST ALL ODDS: Rescue work in progress on Tuesday at the Tehri Dam T-3 tunnel, where a shaft caved in. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

TEHRI DAM (UTTARANCHAL), AUG. 3. A cave-in at the Tehri dam late last night has left 70-80 workers trapped inside a tunnel shaft with little hope of rescue. Twelve bodies have been recovered. According to the duty roster, there were 130 workers at the site.

Rescue teams were still at work but except for the nine injured brought out this morning, there was little possibility of finding anyone else alive, according to the Tehri District Magistrate, Punit Kansal. "According to a rough estimate, at least 70-80 people are feared trapped inside. The prospects of them coming out alive is very, very bleak," Mr. Kansal said. The labourers had been caught between three layers of the shuttering that had come crashing down on them.

Pressure from rain

The accident occurred inside the 220-metre shaft being constructed in the T3 tunnel to carry the spill over if the dam storage level exceeds the permissible 676 metres. The shaft caved in, trapping all the workers engaged in grouting, shuttering and other activity. Over 190 metres of the shaft, called spillway in technical jargon, had been completed. Only 30 metres at the top had not been completed and this section caved in. According to technical experts at the site, it was because of "pressure from the rain."

The lower portions of the shaft had already been constructed and this raises the question about how it came crumbling down with just a little pressure from above. Officials of the JP Group, the contractors, were tight-lipped about the cause of the accident.

Racing against deadline

Construction had been in progress round the clock with a full workforce because the deadline for the completion of this tunnel was September.

The 12 bodies recovered so far were of labourers from Punjab, Bihar and Orissa who had come all the way to earn a salary of Rs. 4,000-5,000 a month. Five of the nine injured were in a serious condition. Four were taken to the JP Group's makeshift hospital at the site while five were sent to hospitals in Dehradun. The bodies of 10 persons have been sent to their hometowns.

The JP Group has promised to "adequately compensate" the families of those killed. "We will ascertain the causes of the accident first. And, of course, the families of those killed would be compensated," said Rakesh Sharma, one of the directors of the JP group, personally supervising the extrication work inside the tunnel.

Work stopped

The moment news of the accident spread, work at all the sites at the huge Tehri dam came to a standstill. Agitated workers refused to go inside the tunnels, fearing for their lives.

In New Delhi, the Central Government ordered a high-level inquiry into the accident. It will be headed by M.S. Reddy, former Chairman of the Central Water Commission and former Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, and will have a member each from the CWC and the Central Electricity Authority.

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