35km from Silkyara, water leak from tunnel spooks villages

DEHRADUN: In the shadow of last month's tunnel collapse in Silkyara town, anxiety is palpable in villages near Dharasu town, Uttarkashi, just 35km from the rescue site. Residents of villages nearby are concerned over the increasing leakage from a 16-km inlet tunnel that supplies water from the Bhagirathi river into the Joshiyara barrage and then onto the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited's (UJVNL) Maneri Bhali-2 power plant.



The leak, on for two years now, has "surged", prompting concerns of an impending disaster. Talking to TOI, Surendra Pal Singh, the head of Mehergaon village, said, "Water coming out of cracks in the tunnel has damaged our agricultural land." Singh said that experts sent by UJVNL had taken some measures but the leakage has not stopped. "Though the leakage problem first arose in 2008 and was then repaired, it resurfaced with greater intensity in November 2021. The trickle has in recent times turned into a rivulet. We fear that the water might impact the soil beneath the mountain, leading to a potential calamity akin to Joshimath (which had reported large-scale land subsidence last year). We hope that it is repaired soon so as to avoid a similar situation."