Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday informed the Parliament that the rock classification of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel alignment ranges from poor to very good.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Gadkari said the rock classification as per the geological report submitted by the Detailed Project Report (DPR) consultant concerning Silkyara-Barkot tunnel alignment ranges from poor to very fair.To overcome the problem of weak rocks during tunnel construction, additional support such as shotcrete, fore poling, rock bolts, steel ribs, lattice girder, etc. have been provided, the Union Minister added.The development came at a time when 41 workers were trapped in the Silkyara Bend – Barkot Tunnel on November 12 and were subsequently rescued on November 28, 2023.
The tunnel is a single-tube tunnel divided into two inter-connected corridors by a partition wall. Besides, each inter-connector corridor can work as an escape passage for the other.The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) is constructing the tunnel through Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd.
In February 2018,the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs led under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval to the construction of the tunnel with escape passage including approaches on the Dharasu -Yamunotri section in Uttarakhand. Once the project is completed, the tunnel will reduce the travel distance from Dharasu to Yamunotri by about 20 km and travel time by about an hour.
As per the official report, the civil construction cost of the project is estimated at Rs.1,119.69 crore, while the total project cost is pegged at Rs.1383.78 crore, which is inclusive of the cost towards land acquisition and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities as well as maintenance & operation cost of tunnel for 4 years.
Raise in Budget of Road & Transport Ministry
“The average annual budgetary allocation of theRoad Transport & Highways ministryhas increased by more than 940 percent from about Rs 25,872 crore/year during 2009-14 to about Rs 2,70,435 crore during 2023-24,” Gadkari said.
According to him, the length of the 4-lane plus NH network including high-speed corridors has increased by more than 250 percent from about 18,371 km in March 2014 to about 46,179 km so far.
Besides, the length of less than 2 lane NHs has decreased from about 27,517 km in March 2014 to about 14,870 km, which is now only about 10 percent of the network, Nitin Gadkari mentioned.