What we know of the Uttarakhand tunnel collapse

Subject :Geography

Section : Places in news

Context:

About Silkyara- Barkot Tunnel Project:

Silkyara Tunnel (or Silkyara- Barkot tunnel) is located on the Uttarkashi-Yamnotri road.
The tunnel is a part of the Char Dham all-weather road project which commenced in 2016. The Rs 12,000-crore highway expansion project in Uttarakhand is a flagship initiative of the Centre.
Build by: NHIDCL through Navyuga Engineering Company.
Cost of the project: 853 crore.
Tunnel length: 4.5 km
The tunnel aims to reduce the distance between Gangotri and Yamunotri from 26 km to 4.1 km.

About the Char Dham Project

ChardhamPariyojana aims to “improve the connectivity to the Chardham pilgrimage centres (Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri) in the Himalayas, making journeys to these centres safer, faster and more convenient.
It will widen almost 900 km of highways connecting the pilgrimage sites and the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh stretch of National Highway (NH) 125, a part of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route.
The Char Dham project will cover Uttarakhand’s four major shrines — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri — in the upper Himalayas by widening 889 km of hill roads.
This project can act as the strategic feeder roads which connect the India-China border with the Army camps in Dehradun and Meerut where missile bases and heavy machinery are located.
Implementing Agencies: Uttarakhand State Public Works Department (PWD), Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the National Highway & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
NHIDCL is a fully owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.