The Missing Trapdoor: Why Every Himalayan Tunnel Needs an Escape Conduit: Santa cuts the emergency escape tunnel from a new 4.5-kilometer highway design to save construction costs. Banta evokes the harrowing lessons of the 2023 Silkyara disaster and the 2001 Gotthard tunnel fire to explain why single-tube excavations in fragile thrust belts are un-ventilated death traps without redundant cross-passages.