Protests broke out in India’s Uttarkhand state, where emergency workers are making efforts to rescue at least 40 workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel for more than 78 hours.
The demonstrations began after the main machine being used to dig through the rubble to reach the workers broke down.
Authorities were using an auger machine to drill and insert steel pipes into the rubble to create a passage for the workers on Tuesday.
But the machine broke down after a pipe was inserted through two metres but hit a boulder inside the tunnel.
It caused another landslide further hampering the rescue work because of debris and mud.
The 4.5-kilometre tunnel that collapsed was being built between Silkyara and Dandalgaon, to connect two of the holiest Hindu shrines in the state at Uttarkashi and Yamunotri.
TV footage showed angry protesters – family members and workers from the construction company – gathered outside the site and clashing with the authorities and rescue workers.
They accused authorities of being lax and failing to provide a back-up machine.
“We had been calm and patient for the last five days but what is the administration doing? Nothing? No work. They are doing a formality. They’re lying to us,” one of the protesters said amid chants of “evacuate our people”.
Luv Kumar Rathori, another worker, said: “Every day, they tell us that they’ll evacuate them today. They are hungry, starving.”
The accident took place early morning on Sunday when a group of workers was heading out of the tunnel and others about to start their shift were going in.
Initial reports said the collapse was caused by a landslide but an investigation is under way.
The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, the agency engaged in building the tunnel, said new machines were being flown in to speed up the rescue work.
“Another high-power drilling machine is being airlifted from New Delhi to the nearby Air Force base. All the arrangements at site are being done and the high-power machine will be installed at the earliest,” the agency said.
Emergency workers were removing the piled debris using excavators in a nearly 55-metre stretch for the first two days but it was challenging as more debris was falling from the roof of the collapsed tunnel.
The tunnel is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Char Dham project, to improve connectivity to four Hindu pilgrimage sites in the state.
Nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, Uttarakhand is known for its natural beauty and houses dozens of major Hindu temples. It is a popular tourist destination.
However, the ecologically sensitive region has been facing the brunt of climate change and rampant construction.
The state was hit by floods in 2013 that devastated Kedarnath, one of the holiest Hindu shrines, killing more than 5,700 people. A glacial lake burst in 2021, causing a flash flood at a hydropower project construction site that killed more than 200.
About 50 people were killed this summer after unprecedented heavy rain caused flash flooding and landslides.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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