Saturday, 18 February 2023 | PNS | NEW TEHRI
Appearance of features like cracks in the tunnel at Chamba on the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway 94 have caused anxiety among the locals who are demanding a geological check by experts. However, the additional district magistrate and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials who inspected the tunnel on Friday have assured that the tunnel is secure and the features appearing are part of a natural process.
The Tehri ADM Ramji Sharan and BRO officials inspected the Chamba tunnel in detail on Friday. BRO additional engineer NS Kotwal said that casting is not done all at once while building a tunnel. The casting is done in patches and joints are left between the patches. There are such joints in every tunnel and these expand in summer and contract during the winter which is a natural process and nothing to worry about. The tunnel structure is secure, he stressed.
Geologist SP Sati told this correspondent that phase gap is a feature incorporated in tunnels considering variation in temperature.
It is pertinent to mention here that a 440 metre long tunnel has been built on the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway at Chamba using the New Australian Tunneling Method (NATM) as part of the all-weather road project. The Chamba bazaar located above the tunnel has not been touched and has been kept as it was.
