Inclusion of six tunnels of four lane Jammu-Srinagar highway in the 29 tunnels being taken up for safety audit by National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI) would most likely reduce the vulnerability of travellers to tunnel collapse incidents on Jammu-Srinagar highway. Since the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has taken the decision to conduct safety audit of 29 under construction tunnel across the country in view of the recent experiences of Silkyara tunnel collapse incident resulting in the trapping of 41 workers inside the tunnel in Uttarkashi area of Uttarakhand, the growing public concern over the vulnerability of travellers to such tunnel collapse incidents in the tunnels built at different places on Jammu-Srinagar highway have been addressed well in time. Though the six tunnels being taken up for safety audit in Jammu & Kashmir also include the four one each at Marog, Digdol, Cafeteria and Peera on Jammu-Srinagar highway, the long awaited decision on safety audit would give travellers a sense of satisfaction about their travel safety on Jammu-Srinagar highway. However keeping in view the intense vulnerability of some places of the Ramban sector of Jammu-Srinagar highway to frequent road accidents the safety of the travellers demands safety audit of both the under construction and as well as already completed tunnels on Jammu-Srinagar highway. Yet another good measure taken for the safety of travellers on Jammu-Srinagar Highway is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Nation Highway Authority Of India (NHAI) with Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) to review design, drawing, and other safety aspects with regard to tunnel construction and slope stabilisation of it’s projects.
“Safety audit of the tunnels is just a part of the travel safety measures required for safe movement of travelers on Jammu-Srinagar highly as demands for more engineering solutions for the travel safety won’t probably end anywhere in short near future due to increasing pressure of the traffic movement developing on this highway day after day, month after month and year after year. After the completing of the four lane Jammu-Srinagar it’s maintenance and development would be a bigger priority for the National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI) which would for technical reasons necessitate the involvement and engagement of the district administrations of the districts falling on the highway, geological agencies and disaster management authorities”.
As the teams of National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI) are likely to submit reports on under- construction tunnel projects in a short span of a week’s time, the safety audit of the four under construction tunnels on Jammu –Srinagar highway would also hopefully begin in short time. Since the Konkan Railway Corporation Limmitted(KRCL ) under the above referred MoU is obliged to also suggest the remedial measures if needed, the apprehensions about the safety of travelers in tunnels on Jammu-Srinagar highway would mostly likely be addressed effectively now under the said MoU by the Konkan Railways Corporation Ltd (KRCL) which is also obliged to hold training programmes for capacity building of NHAI officials for not less than next two years. What matters the most is the fact that the safety audit of the tunnels is just a part of the travel safety measures required for safe movement of travelers on Jammu-Srinagar highly as demands for more engineering solutions for the travel safety won’t probably end anywhere in short near future due to increasing pressure of the traffic movement developing on this highway day after day, month after month and year after year. After the completing of the four lane Jammu-Srinagar it’s maintenance and development would be a bigger priority for the National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI) which would for technical reasons necessitate the involvement and engagement of the district administrations of the districts falling on the highway, geological agencies and disaster management authorities.
