Local officials have blamed the heavy rains in the area that caused a massive mud slide and the consequent collapse of a 190-meter shaft in an tunnel of the Tehri dam and hydroelectric project. But independent reports from the area suggest that construction work was being carried out round the clock as the contractor, Jay Prakash Associates, New Delhi, rushed towards a September deadline to complete this Tunnel No. 3 of the 2,400-MW Tehri hydroelectric project.
Work on 190 m out of the proposed 220-m shaft or spillway has already been completed, local sources say. More than 80 workers were in tunnel No. 3 of the project at the time of the accident. Over 50 of them were rescued, some of them with injuries.