DC Edit | Safety lapses in tunnel mishap

The Srisailam left bank tunnel collapse in which there are increasing fears over the eight workers who listed missing, raises important questions on just how prepared we, as a nation, are when it comes to safety. While this may be so, there is nothing that prevented either the government or the contractors from being proactive and taking up a detailed study of the geology along the planned length and alignment of what would become the largest irrigation tunnel in the world once completed. Until safety becomes the priority of every actor involved in any project, and even the remotest possibility of an accident is studied in advance by taking into account every possible variable, the country may see more such disasters, unless of course, such an incident is truly triggered by circumstances beyond human control. This aspect, however, in no way takes away huge credit that is due to the rescuers, whether from the NDRF, SDRF, the Army and the Navy, or private entities that have pitched in with their own expertise in search and rescue operations and are facing with what can easily be described as insurmountable challenges inside the partially collapsed tunnel.