Silkyara- Barkot Tunnel Collapse: Could the Collapse Have Been Averted?

Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath are considered a holy pilgrimage journey. Traditionally a holy pilgrimage should move from left to right. Hence the pilgrimage begins from the Yamunotri temple and moves to Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. A tunnel of length 4531 metres was being built between Gangotri and Yamunotri. This tunnel would help reduce the distance between the two holy places by approximately 26 kilometres. 41 workers were trapped for almost 17 days inside the tunnel under construction on November 12, 2023, when a part of the tunnel roof between Chainage 205m and Chainage 260m collapsed at around 0530 hours. Could the collapse have been averted? Were there any project-related violations in the construction of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel? Was it an ill-conceived, unscientific project?