Wayanad debris slide: Eight migrant labourers die in tunnel construction accident
A debris slide triggered by heavy monsoon rains near an under-construction tunnel in Wayanad, Kerala, has killed eight migrant workers, officials said on July 7. The incident occurred near the portal of the Anakkampoyil-Kalladi-Meppadi twin-tube tunnel road, which is being built to connect Wayanad and Kozhikode.
The victims were all employees of Dilip Buildcon Ltd., the company constructing the 8.73-km tunnel. They were identified as Chandra Bahn, Azharuddin Ansari, Mohammed Imran, Bikash Kumar Singh, Anmol, Rakesh Guchait, Rahul Sharma, and Bikram Singh Rana. The deceased hailed from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Himachal Pradesh.
According to eyewitnesses, a loud sound was heard from a hilltop near the Meenakshi bridge at Kalladi around 7 a.m. on July 7. Minutes later, a massive wave of mud and debris swept down, destroying the bridge, a mosque, and a nearby house. Two migrant labourers, Palraj and Koodammal, who were waiting for a bus, narrowly escaped by taking cover under a tanker lorry that was caught in the slide.
Rescue teams from the National Disaster Response Force, Kerala police, and Fire and Rescue Services recovered the bodies and shifted the injured to a hospital. A rescue camp was set up at the Government Polytechnic College in Meppadi, about a kilometre from the site.
Investigations revealed that large mounds of excavated soil from the tunnel construction had been dumped near the entrance of the yet-to-be-bored tunnel at the foot of a rocky slope. Cement lining, 10 to 20 metres high and about three inches thick, had been installed on the slopes flanking a newly formed road leading to the tunnel portal. The heavy rainfall—221 mm recorded between July 6 and 7, the highest in the district—saturated the soil, causing the rocky slope to give way. The slide carried soil from the forested area above, construction debris, and the dumped mud.
Although construction had been halted in June due to the monsoon, a few labourers and engineers were present for monitoring. Experts, including former District Soil Conservation Officer P.U. Das, noted that water flowing down from a rock formation 180 metres above the road level had weakened the soil, leading to the disaster. The tunnel project, estimated to cost ₹2,100 crore, is being executed by the Konkan Railway Corporation and supervised by the State Public Works Department, with funding from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board. It received final approval earlier this year and is scheduled for completion in four years.
