A research by scientists at applied geology department in Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, has revealed that at several locations along the Dharasu-Uttarkashi highway in the Uttarakhand Himalayas, landslides and slope failures are about to occur.

The highway (NH-108) connects Tehri and Uttarkashi and is an important transport way that supports business, pilgrimage, infrastructure development and international tourism round the year.

Dharasu is a link to the Char Dham pilgrimage.

“A rigorous comprehensive multi-parametric analysis of the failure conditions of the hill slopes along the highway had been performed recently to reveal that 12 locations along the highway manifest conditions of various degrees of instability with three locations particularly on the verge of failure and require immediate mitigation,” said dean of media and branding, IIT (ISM), Rajni Singh.

The research was carried out by associate professor and head of applied geology department, Mrinal Kanti Mukherjee, along with his PhD student Anil Kumar Gupta.

“The ground breaking research developed novel stability charts that combines several geomechanical slope classifications and integrates with it rock microstructural parameters of failure to identify slopes that are about to fail. The highway passing through such locations are extremely vulnerable and require immediate stabilisation operations and precautions,” added Singh.

The findings of the research have been recently published in the prestigious journal Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering on March 30, 2022.

“During field geological investigations of the slopes of the studied area, they had observed that several locations along the highway including their area of study and beyond, have suffered landslides and road-cut slope failures. The types of failures include small blocky slides and extensive plane and wedge slides and large shallow circular failures. These road-cut slope failures have caused several incidences of property and life loss in the area. Highway constructions and maintenance along these sectors, therefore, becomes extremely challenging,” explained Mrinal Kanti Mukherjee, an experienced structural geologist and researcher in engineering geology.

“Surprisingly, no comprehensive study in terms of predictive assessment of stabilities of the road-cut slopes existed before, in this sector, to address the safety of the highway. In this context, the present research findings fill the gap and impact the safety of the highway and environment directly,” added Mukherjee.

As part of his ongoing research, Mukherjee now aims at developing early warning systems that might serve as a precaution to maintain the safety of the highway against the slope failures.

Meanwhile, three senior faculties, besides a former head of department of applied geology of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad have been selected by the Union mines ministry for the National Geoscience Award (NGA) 2019 for their outstanding achievements in the field of fundamental/applied geosciences, mining and allied areas. The award will be provided on July 12 during a ceremony at Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.

Those selected include Bhabesh Chandra Sarkar (applied geology), V.M.S.R. Murthy (mining engineering), S. K. Maiti (environmental science) and former head of applied geology O.P. Verma.