Tunnelling and Underground Projects: Space for Risk Sharing

Underground space utilization is a rapidly growing trend in India as a numbers of underground projects are under execution and an equal number of them are in the pipeline awaiting their turn for tendering. These projects demand a particular type of construction and thus need extensive planning right from a tender stage until the final commissioning. Most of the risk factors are inherent in the construction and contract process themselves and are indispensably relevant to tunneling. Several vital risk factors, which are liable to influence the safety, quality, work schedule and ultimately the overall success of the project, have to be considered and analyzed. The same points an elaborate treatment in the present paper which may interest all the stakeholders.

The author aims at reviewing, updating and creating an understanding of these spaces of risk and thereby giving an indispensible guideline to the tendering authorities and contractors on the preparation and acceptance of such contracts. The stake holders must take in to account the possible consequences of major risk factors: Financial, Environmental and managerial.