Rajkot: Reaching Dholavira, the famous Harappan site on Khadir Island in Great Rann of Kutch, will be much easier soon.
The Union ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has given its green signal to construct the 64-km road from Ekal to Bambhanka, which will reduce the distance between Bhachau and Dholavira to just around 75 km from the present 160 km. Around 18 km of this 64 km stretch will pass through the desert, which is a white Rann.
At present, tourists going to Dholavira have to take the road from Bhachau to Rapar and ahead. Once the new road through the desert is constructed, they won’t have to travel to Rapar and instead will straightaway reach Dholavira from Bhachau.
Sarpanch of Dholavira village Jilubha Sodha said, “At present, the distance between Bhachau and Dholavira is 150 km, which will reduce to 75 km because of the new road passing through the white desert. We expect the number of tourists to also increase manifold and thus helping the local economy.”
MoEF informed about its decision to all the stakeholders in a letter dated February 7 and the standing committee of National Board For Wildlife in its 47th meeting held on January 25 has also considered this issue.
Khadir Island is in the middle of the Greater Rann. It was declared wildlife sanctuary in 1986 to protect flamingos, black bucks and other animals. This project involves diversion of 23.40 hectare forest land from Kutch desert sanctuary.
Member of National Wildlife Board H S Singh told TOI, “It is good that this road has got environment clearance. Whenever the road for villagers is closed for conservation, it creates resentment among them and ultimately leads to conflict with the wildlife. But their cooperation is necessary to protect the local species and strict conditions are imposed regarding the road construction.”
Ekal is locally famous for its Ekal Mata temple and a committee of locals was formed to represent the demand of this road under the leadership of Devnath Bapu of the temple. “This has been our demand for many years. In 2008, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister, he had sanctioned Rs 42 crore to construct this road, but MoEF did not give the permission. Now that we have got the clearance, our delegation will meet chief minister Vijay Rupani on Wednesday and request him to start the construction work at the earliest,” Devnath Bapu said.
The new road will also come as a huge relief to nearly 17,000 residents of 10 villages on Khadir Island, who have to travel long distances for every small government work. Khadir is under the jurisdiction of Bhachau taluka. Most of them are farmers who grow cumin, which has a high demand in Unjha market. Animal husbandry is also a major occupation. There are close to 12,000 livestock on the island.
Social activist Dr Rajesh Maheshvari said, “This road will touch Gaduli-Santalpur stretch which will make transportation between north Gujarat and Kutch easier.”
