Narrow escape for operator as machine buried under debris

Tribune News Service
Solan, January 14

Sandeep Kumar, a porcelain machine operator, had a miraculous escape this afternoon when the machine he was operating at Dhori Dawar Chownk here was buried under the debris when the overhead hill caved in due to shoddy protection work.

The other workers working at the site rushed to the operator’s rescue. They broke open the glass chamber of the machine to rescue him. He was rushed to the local regional hospital where his condition is stated to be stable.

The erosion of the hill has put at risk a high tension electricity tower which was perched atop the hill. The hill, excavated for four-laning of the highway, has become vulnerable to erosion. Instead of raising strong breast walls the private company four-laning the highway, GR Infraprojects, had made use of shot crete and rock bolting techniques to protect it.

The work, which was under way for the last several months, has become vulnerable after showers received in the last few days. Though some debris was rolling down the hill at regular intervals a large chunk of the hill caved in this afternoon and buried the porcelain machine deployed at the spot.

Executive Engineer, Transmission Wing, KC Raghu said shoddy protection work undertaken at the site had made the HT tower vulnerable. He rued that despite asking the four-laning company to provide coordinates of excavation work, the same had not been provided. A survey would be undertaken soon to explore the possibility of shifting this HT tower as it will not be able to sustain at the site due to erosion of the hill.

Raghu said he had already communicated to the highway authorities that if any loss was caused to the HT tower they would have to bear the loss but no precaution was undertaken to ensure quality work. The issue has been taken up afresh with the project director of the NHAI to shift the tower after today’s incident.

The shot crete and rock bolting techniques put in use by GR Infraprojects at other sites on the national highway at Jabli and Dharampur had failed miserably and despite the presence of a high risk HT tower at the accident site, they had used the same techniques to stabilize the eroding hill.