NEW DELHI: The successful rescue of the 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel saw PMO stepping in to nudge the different agencies concerned to collaborate on the challenge.
As concern about the well-being of workers at Uttarkashi swelled, officials in PMO, including Bhaskar Khulbe, former advisor to PM who is no longer in service, and another one belonging to Uttarakhand, joined a larger crisis management group to fuse the different entities into a determined effort to bring out the trapped.
Sources said soon after getting the alert about the collapse of a portion of the under-construction tunnel on November 12, Principal Secretary to PM P K Mishra, known for his familiarity with the challenge of disaster management, formed a team comprising Khulbe and Mangesh Ghildiyal, one of the deputy secretaries, who would soon be camping at the site.
Officials said that PMO’s intervention was crucial for mobilisation of experts and equipment from major PSUs, including the RVNL, ONGC, SJVNL, THDC and DRDO, as well as application of relevant technologies and devices such drones, robots and endoscopic cameras.
While road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said he was “completely relieved and happy” for the rescue of workers, he added that the government has learnt a lesson from the incident. “We will be carrying out safety audits of tunnels and will try to use the best technologies. The strata of Himalaya is very fragile and it’s tough to carry out works there, so we have to find solutions and we will do that,” he said in a post on X.
“A whole of government approach was adopted and all relevant ministries and organisations such as Army, Air Force, BRO, NDRF, NDMA and the Uttarakhand government, including private entities were also contacted as and when needed,” said an official.
Sources said on November 20, Mishra chaired a coordination meeting with all agencies involved in the operation at PMO wherein the heads of organisations were directed for hourly monitoring of the operations personally. “Home and road transport secretaries were instructed to ensure a green corridor for equipment machinery which were being transported from various parts of the country to the spot,” said a source.
As concern about the well-being of workers at Uttarkashi swelled, officials in PMO, including Bhaskar Khulbe, former advisor to PM who is no longer in service, and another one belonging to Uttarakhand, joined a larger crisis management group to fuse the different entities into a determined effort to bring out the trapped.
Sources said soon after getting the alert about the collapse of a portion of the under-construction tunnel on November 12, Principal Secretary to PM P K Mishra, known for his familiarity with the challenge of disaster management, formed a team comprising Khulbe and Mangesh Ghildiyal, one of the deputy secretaries, who would soon be camping at the site.
Officials said that PMO’s intervention was crucial for mobilisation of experts and equipment from major PSUs, including the RVNL, ONGC, SJVNL, THDC and DRDO, as well as application of relevant technologies and devices such drones, robots and endoscopic cameras.
While road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said he was “completely relieved and happy” for the rescue of workers, he added that the government has learnt a lesson from the incident. “We will be carrying out safety audits of tunnels and will try to use the best technologies. The strata of Himalaya is very fragile and it’s tough to carry out works there, so we have to find solutions and we will do that,” he said in a post on X.
“A whole of government approach was adopted and all relevant ministries and organisations such as Army, Air Force, BRO, NDRF, NDMA and the Uttarakhand government, including private entities were also contacted as and when needed,” said an official.
Sources said on November 20, Mishra chaired a coordination meeting with all agencies involved in the operation at PMO wherein the heads of organisations were directed for hourly monitoring of the operations personally. “Home and road transport secretaries were instructed to ensure a green corridor for equipment machinery which were being transported from various parts of the country to the spot,” said a source.