Centre approves 13 more detailed project reports for Chardham road

Thirteen more detailed project reports (DPRs) for works related to the Chardham all-weather road project have been approved by the Centre, chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh said here on Thursday.

Authorities, he said, “will ensure that pilgrims are not inconvenienced due to the construction of the road during the soon-to-start Chardham yatra (pilgrimage).”

This year, the annual Chardham yatra begins on April 18.

“The Centre has approved 13 more detailed project reports for works to be carried out for the Chardham all-weather road project. Work on the DPRs approved earlier is already in full swing,” the chief secretary told reporters after reviewing the road project.

The ₹12,000 core centrally sponsored project is being implemented in an 890-km area in Uttarakhand.

“Work on the 13 DPRs approved by the Centre will start soon. It will begin as soon as tenders that will be floated (by different departments) will be finalised,” Singh said.

He said authorities had been directed to ensure that pilgrims, who would participate in the Chardham yatra, were not inconvenienced owing to the construction work on the route.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the Chardham all-weather road project ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.

Apart from district magistrates concerned, forest officials and those of the line departments and the Border Roads Organisation besides contractors implementing the mega project also participated in the meeting on Thursday.

“Officials and contractors were called at the meeting so that issues and problems relating to the implementation of the Chardham all-weather road project could be sorted out,” Singh said.

He said all issues relating to land and forest clearances for the crucial all-weather road project “are being processed” fast.

Giving details of the project, Singh said of the total 890-km Chardham all-weather road project, the DPRs had been cleared for up to 650-km length. “The process of clearing the detailed project reports for the remaining portion of the project area is on.”

On a query regarding work in a patch of the project being held up owing to objections raised by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he said a master plan for development in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone “is being readied”.

“It will be ready by the end of this month. A draft report in that connection has been circulated among officials and stakeholders and their opinions will also be incorporated in the document.”

In that connection, a monitoring committee had been reconstituted by the Union environment and forest ministry. “We will see if the crucial projects get approval from that panel. If such an approval is given, those (projects) will be fast tracked,” Singh said.

He reiterated that the state government’s top priority at the moment, however, “is that pilgrims who will be undertaking the Chardham yatra are not inconvenienced” owing to the construction work.

“Officials have, therefore, been directed to ensure that activities like hill cutting and blasting of rocks are not carried out once the yatra starts,” the chief secretary said.

“BRO chief engineer also assured us that the agency would ensure arrangements so that pilgrims could easily cross the patches where the road construction was on.”

Similarly, the police would also ensure an uninterrupted flow of traffic on the Chardham route during the yatra.

“We have no such information,” he said when asked about the reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Kedarnath during the ceremonial reopening of its portals on April 29.