૪૨ Himachal Pradesh's 60 km long road from Namnali to Ladakhnaleh is closed for six months in a year due to snowfall. The main obstacle is the 18,058 feet high Rohtang Ghat, where the accumulation of snow creates a blockade for vehicles.
ગ The proposal to bypass Rohtang and cut the tunnel was rejected in 19, but the moment of its implementation came in the year 2010.
ને Network of Roads-Roads-Bridges in the Himalayas: The Border Roads Organization, in collaboration with an Austrian engineering company, undertook the task of digging a 5 km stretch across the Pirpanjal hills. But one obstacle after another kept coming as Nagadhiraj Himalaya decided to take a tough test of him. This time in Article 3, let us discuss about those obstacles and the achievements of the Indian workers / engineers who have struggled against them.
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Engineers have to dig hundreds of kilometers of tunnels to build a metro rail complex a few hundred feet below the ground. The traditional method of excavation takes too much time to complete, so engineers use a mechanical drill called a tunnel boring machine / TBM as a short-cut. The TBM drill, with a diameter of one meter to 15 meters, is an engine with a metal cutting whistle on the front. As the wheel spins on the axle, its iron teeth dig into the ground wall. The pressure of the drill is so great that it does not remain in the hard rock without crushing it. Clay, rocks, piles seem to be dripping, which is collected by a mechanical shovel of TBM and carried out 'back door' through a conveyor belt belt. If you get the diameter of the tunnel dug in this way, there is no difference anywhere. It is natural for TBM to dig a 20 feet long tunnel in 24 hours, which means it will not take more than a year to build a six and a half kilometer long tunnel.
The big disadvantage of TBM against the advantage of cutting tunnels at maximum speed with the help of minimal labor is that it cannot be used in mountains thousands of feet above the surface. The huge and heavy body of the drill is responsible for the fact that it cannot be delivered at high altitudes. (Eighty meter interest TBM weighs 2,500 tons!) This problem: Engineers of Border Road Organization who want to build a 5 km long tunnel near Rohtang Ghat. Therefore, he had to adopt the method of Drill and Blasting / D&B of landmine blasting and drilling. An Austrian company was hired to build tunnels in the snow-capped mountains of the European Alps.
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After a slight delay of more than two and a half decades, work on the Atal Tunnel (then Rohtang Tunnel) began in June 2010. A team of about seven hundred and fifty engineers-technicians as well as 5,000 workers plowed into Bhagirath Shramayagna day and night without seeing them. The excavation went on in two threads. In other words, one team started Drill and Blasting / D&B from Dhundhi and the other from Sissut. Exactly seven years later the two ends were to come together.
In the meantime, workers and engineers in the Himalayan cold storage had to undergo frequent ordeals. Some of the unfortunates were not able to get out of it. For example, on March 4, 2011, two workers were thrown into a ravine by a sudden avalanche of snow from a high mountain slope.
Three months later, on July 21, 2011, the Rohtang Ghat was overrun. Niagara Falls seemed to fall from the sky. There was so much water coming from Uparvas that the artisans did not even get a chance to save their lives. Twenty-two workers were seriously injured, five went missing and nine victims lost their lives.
The heterogeneous climate of the Himalayas put the engineers / workers to the test 24 × 7. At an altitude of ten thousand feet, the air is thin and cool. Also, due to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere, not as much labor can be done in the plains at a height as high as Rohtang. Breaking rocks with a hammer as well as a drill, digging out mounds, digging, lifting poles, cutting iron rods, bending, ringing their ankles, etc., can be a daunting task, which can make the workers' breath swell. Shortness of breath and increased heart rate. Another problem is that when the temperature drops below zero to 10 to 20 degrees Celsius during the five months of the year, the body's natural moisture in the cold stochastic environment continues to evaporate, leading to dehydration.
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In addition to natural disasters such as avalanches, torrential rains, and freezing temperatures, the additional challenge was engineering — and it was not like going back. It is not a common task for us to break the black rocks of the Himalayas at the level of ten thousand feet. Even if it crosses smoothly, foam in the mouth brings sweat to the body.
As shown in the drawing here, first (1) a vehicle with a long mechanical arm makes a hole in the rocky wall with a drill and then (2) a mine is lost inside the hole. (2) If the vehicle moves to a safe place, then all the tata should be blown together by squeezing the jamgari. (3) The mass of dust and mud raised by the collapse of the closed rocks comes out at the end of the tunnel, i.e. (p) The falling rocks are taken away. (2) The next stage is to excavate tons of rocks in a mechanical shovel, after which the metal rods are pushed deep into the ceiling (3) and cement is poured on the rocky surface. After the tunnel has become a rough structure, its inner surface has to be cemented with concrete for reinforcement.
All of this, however, is not as easy to implement as it may seem to read. New engineering obstacles arise step by step. The construction of the Atal Tunnel was hampered by the fact that Nagadhiraj, who was sitting here meditating, was being punished for disturbing the Himalayas.
Started in June, 2016. An underground channel called Seri flowed just above where the Atal tunnel was carved. Engineers detonated controlled explosives but at one point cracks formed in the roof. The water of Seri Nala started leaking from it. The breakdown was small, so the matter was not worrisome. But after a month or so, the wreckage became more and more open and at one stage became 540 meters long. Inside the tunnel, the water of Seri Nala started flowing at the rate of 35 liters per second. The drilling seemed to stop naturally, on the contrary, the engineers had to play with water. This unexpected interruption was preceded by excavations at a rate of 5 meters per day. Seri Nalla brought the figure to 0.5 meters.
The task of making the dripping roof waterproof / waterproof is a daunting task. Here the roof of the mountain (not dripping, but raining) had to be fixed — and that too about half a kilometer long! It took a whole year to cover the gaps with water-repellent coatings as well as chemicals and cement-concrete slabs. As the adage of ghost mare and palit waking up came true during the construction of Atal Tunnel, another calamity struck in 2014. The 50-meter roof of the tunnel towards Sissud in Lahore-Spiti suddenly collapsed. Luckily no casualties were reported and no casualties were reported. Of course, the workers of Atal Tunnel had to work day and night to mend the torn roof. On one occasion the only bridge connecting Sissu village to the tunnel collapsed, then a monsoon towards Sami (Rohtang Ghat) badly eroded the road to the tunnel.
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The Nagadhiraja Himalayas kept throwing up one challenge after another and the engineers-workers answered everyone with patience, hard work and diligence. At the end of seven years of rigorous penance, the final landmine was detonated in the Atal Tunnel on October 12, 2016. The only blackened wall between the tunnel excavated from the Sissu of Olahol-Spoti and the fog of Rohtang collapsed in the blast. The nine-kilometer-long tunnel was finally built. According to the words used by the poet Gulzar in that song of 'O Maazi Re ...', he found the edge of the tunnel that day. Dhundino on one side and Sissun on the other! Seeing that the 4 km long tunnel at the level of ten thousand feet has not happened anywhere else in the world, not only the tunnel but also a world record was created by the hands of the engineers and workers.
After the structure of the building is erected, various modifications have to be done in the name of decoration in it. It took two years to prepare everything. Today, on the day of September 26, 2030, that engineering wonder is going to be opened to the people of the country. Even if Harakh's killed chichiaris are given a chance to pass his son-in-law in the future, a two-minute tribute to the workers who died accidentally in the line of duty should be given in silence and a silent salute to the anonymous and unwavering creators of Atal Tunnel.
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