A devastating landslide at Kalladi near Meppady in Wayanad, Kerala, has resulted in one death and seven missing individuals at a crucial tunnel road project site, with Chief Minister V D Satheesan attributing the tragedy to contractors' failure to heed warnings about accumulated mud.
A massive landslide at Wayanad's Kalladi tunnel project killed three people, with politicians blaming contractors for ignoring repeated warnings to remove dumped earth.
After the accident, a passer-by captured a video showing the vehicle with airbags deployed and emergency lights on.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday said the long-awaited 'missing link' on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, aimed at bypassing the winding Bhor Ghat section and improving safety, will be inaugurated on May 1.
Maharashtra's Chief Minister inaugurated the 'Missing Link' project on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, designed to bypass a steep mountain pass, reduce travel time, and boost economic activity.
The Mumbai-Pune Expressway missing link is now fully operational, reducing travel time between the two cities. The Mumbai-bound carriageway opened after a delay due to dismantling of inauguration infrastructure and cleaning work. The project, dubbed an 'engineering marvel', includes tunnels, viaducts and a cable-stayed bridge.
A three-storey under-construction warehouse in Kolkata's Taratala area collapsed, killing three people and trapping several others. Rescue operations are ongoing, with 18 individuals already saved, amid allegations of substandard construction materials and illegal building practices.
Indian roads are far more unsafe than its railways. A sense of urgency is required to tackle India's embarrassing record on road safety.
Traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway resumed at 1.46 am after the damaged gas tanker was shifted from the accident site, an official said.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday said a 190 km long tunnel has been proposed to ease traffic congestion in Bengaluru and within 45 days, the state government will be inviting public tenders for it.
The Maharashtra Highway Traffic Police have advised motorists to avoid the Mumbai-Pune Expressway until regular traffic movement is restored.
The chances of survival for eight people trapped in a collapsed tunnel in Telangana are "very remote," according to a minister. Rescue efforts are ongoing but the minister says it could take three to four days to reach the trapped individuals due to the debris and muck. The minister also mentioned a team of rat miners, who had rescued construction workers in Uttarakhand in 2023, are now assisting with the rescue efforts.
Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said the TBM that is struck inside will be cut into pieces by using gas cutters and removed. After this, the Army, Navy, Rat Miners and NDRF teams will make another serious effort to rescue the eight persons who are missing, without compromising their own safety.
A team of experts involved in rescuing eight people trapped in a partially collapsed tunnel in Telangana have reached the end of the tunnel, but debris is hindering further progress. The rescue operation, described as one of the most complex in the world, continues with experts from the Indian Army, Navy, NDRF, and GSI working tirelessly to find a breakthrough. Despite continuous efforts and oxygen pumping, there has been no contact with the trapped individuals.
The 4.5 kilometre-long Silkyara tunnel project in Uttarakhand, which is part of the central government's strategic 900-km 'Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road', will continue after the necessary safety audit and repair of the broken structure, a senior road ministry official said on Wednesday.
'I can sanction projects worth Rs 20 trillion annually as of today.' 'But my system is only capable of executing projects worth Rs 3 trillion to Rs 4 trillion.'
They said the incident occurred around 4 am when a 150-metre-long portion of the four-and-a-half-kilometer-long tunnel collapsed.
The accident occurred around 9 pm on Friday outside a tunnel near Barkhada village and people in the buses were returning from the 'Kol Mahakumbh' in Satna city, they said.
'I am not an aspiration-oriented politician.' 'This is the time to redefine politics.' 'Politics of power is not real politics.'
As the last ambulance carrying one of the 41 labourers rescued from an under-construction road tunnel left the site in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district for a community health centre on Tuesday evening, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Union minister V K Singh went straight to a temple of local deity Baba Baukhnag to express their gratitude for his blessings.
'We humans may not have not created natural disasters, but we have definitely amplified their impact.'
'These kinds of tunnels are not meant for the Himalayas.' 'Development should be good for all people and not where you make a tunnel and 40 people get trapped.'
'You don't know what you are going to encounter every 10-20 metres.' 'These mountains are unpredictable.'
'The rocks, the geology of the Himalayas will always spring surprises.' 'It's basically force majeure and the will of god.'
In a shocking case of public apathy, a man clutching on to his son lay on the road crying for help inside a tunnel next to the bodies of his wife and infant daughter with nobody stopping by for around 40 minutes after a speeding truck hit his motorcycle.
No one was injured in the incident that triggered panic among road users, even as police cordoned off the area and diverted traffic.
The metro rake which had only officials and engineers on board ran under the Hooghly from Kolkata to Howrah on the other side of the river.
'We had been deceived by the clouds, taken to the brink of death, but saved by the Almighty.'
'I would put my hand in the ground and have a little listen to what the mountain was doing.' 'Actually, it was still collapsing.' 'And there was a very real possibility that at some stage, without warning, the collapse could continue -- and continue across us, the people who were doing the rescue and also across to the men on the other side, who were being rescued.'
'I've never seen such cooperation before. Problem solving. Everyone working together. And truthful.' 'Someone from the prime minister's office was there the entire time, at the table, one of the team.' 'Now you have to figure out how to get them out. And I'm just gonna sit here patiently.' 'But if you annoy me, I could actually ruin the whole game for you and for the people in here, which is the avalanche'.
Bodies of five of the deceased have been recovered so far, while efforts are on to find the remaining five persons, whose chances of survival are bleak, a police official said in Srinagar.
Sources in the Highway Police say the iron holding on the side of the expressway has become old and so the area is landslide prone, putting motorists at risk every day, especially during monsoons.
Ace photographer Pravin Talan has come out with the first-ever Mumbai Railway Police Calendar 2017 that explores this lesser-known police force.
Pump manufacturing company Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and Coal India on Friday are jointly moving 18 high-powered pumps to the mine, officials said.
'It is surprising Mumbaikars take it all in their stride, but it has nothing to do with the crappy spirit of Mumbai that television channels extol every time a tragedy hits us, but all to do with the compulsion of stepping out to earn one's daily roti and dal,' says N Suresh.
'Earlier compensation was less, but we have increased compensation four fold. As a result, farmers want to give up their land.' 'Infrastructure projects will create 50 lakh jobs. If today we are building 14 km of road per day, by next March, we hope to take it up to 30 km. My own hope is we can take it to 100 km per day.' 'The government's ambitious Sagarmala project aims to develop port infrastructure along the country's 7,500 km coastline. The project includes modernisation of our ports and islands, setting up of coastal economic zones, new major ports and fish harbours.'
A high-powered submersible pump from Coal India Ltd will be put into operation on Thursday.
'If you delay the diagnosis even by 24 hours, in that 24 hours individuals would have affected more people.' 'So, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine needs to continue.'
India's top metro cities need to improve their infrastructure and other civic amenities too.
