DEHRADUN: In a tragic accident at the Silkyara tunnel construction site on the Yamunotri highway in Uttarakhand, a machine operator was killed when a ‘shotcrete machine’ being used in the ongoing construction works rolled down and fell into a gorge.According to the Uttarkashi police, the incident occurred late on Sunday evening around 8 pm, resulting in the loss of Govind Kumar’s life, the assistant operating the shotcrete machine at the Silkyara tunnel construction site.The unfortunate incident came to light when Govind Kumar was transporting the machine along the Silkiyara-Vangaon motorway about 150 metres from the tunnel entrance. Due to a mudslide on the roadway, the operator lost control of the shotcrete machine, eventually falling into a deep gorge about 20 to 25 meters below the road level.The Genwala police post incharge in Uttarkashi district, GS Tomar, said, “Govind Kumar, the 24-year-old assistant operating the shotcrete machine, sustained critical injuries in the incident.”Despite immediate efforts to transport him to the primary health center for treatment, Govind succumbed to his injuries en route.The body of Govind, a resident of Didihat, Pithoragarh has been sent for postmortem.According to an engineer at the construction site, “Shotcrete machine is a new type of high-efficiency machine. This equipment uses a concrete pump to transport concrete through the pipeline to the nozzle of the manipulator and uses compressed air with an accelerator to spray the concrete.”Earlier in February, when work resumed in the tunnel after a challenging 17-day rescue operation following the Silkyara tunnel incident in Uttarkashi district, 26 of the 41 labourers who were successfully rescued had decided not to return to work on the tunnel construction project.More than half of the workers in the Silkyara tunnel which had collapsed in the early hours of Diwali in November last year, had expressed their unwillingness to return to work after construction work resumed.
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