Not involved in construction of Uttrakhand tunnel, says Adani group

Adani Group, led by billionaire Gautam Adani said on Monday that it was not directly or indirectly involved in building the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, where 41 construction workers are trapped since it collapsed more than two weeks back. A spokesman for the Adani group said in a statement that the conglomerate neither owns nor has any stake in the business that is building the tunnel.

"We clarify with utmost emphasis that the Adani group or any of its subsidiaries has no direct or indirect involvement of any kind in the tunnel's construction," it said. "We also clarify that we do not own or hold any shares in the company involved in the tunnel's construction.

Since November 12, when a section of the tunnel under construction collapsed due to a landslide, the construction workers have been stuck 260 meters within the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel.


Navayuga Engineering Company Limited, based in Hyderabad, is building the Silkyara tunnel as part of the Char Dham all-weather accessibility project.

Strongly condemning any "nefarious attempts" to link its name to the collapse, the Adani group said, "At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with the trapped workers and their families".

Following many auger machine malfunctions, vertical drilling operations have resumed from the summit of the slope as of Sunday. And drilling to a depth of thirty meters has been finished thus far.

Positively, in the meantime, the auger machine's damaged parts have been removed. Here, hand drilling will now begin, with the Madras Sappers engineering group of the Indian Army overseeing the process.

The hand drilling method, which involves digging tiny tunnels, will be implemented using the rat hole mining technique. Coal mines are where these tunnels are built.