Dear Madam,
Time is running out for 41 labourers who have still been trapped inside the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi for several days. Structural engineers familiar with tunnel drilling said that inadequate investigations prior to the excavation or inappropriate tunnel building protocols were possible reasons that could have triggered the tunnel collapse in Uttarkashi. It is a criminal offence to evade environmental impact assessment and play with the lives of the labourers. This must be investigated properly. Our labourers deserve better treatment because it is they who build our roads, tunnels, buildings and bridges.
Sujit De, Kolkata