Uttarakhand glacier burst may spell more trouble for Char Dham road project

The deluge of pictures of the glacier burst from Uttarakhand may raise fresh troubles for the ongoing Char Dham road project. The project is not one but a smorgasbord of 53 road projects in Uttarakhand at a cost of Rs 12,072 crore. While about 50 per cent of the project has been completed, the difficult ones demanding the most money and widening of the roads near glaciers and landslide-prone zones up in the hills are yet to be attempted.

Under normal circumstances, the completion of some would have gone on at varying speeds. But, with the February 7 Chamoli tragedy, its progress has come under a cloud. Almost all the national highway projects in Uttarakhand had been grouped under the name of Char Dham project by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH). Of them, the most controversial is a 94-kilometre stretch of road from Uttarkashi to Gangotri. It passes through the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone. The deadly cocktail of snow and boulders which had come down on February 7 was on the other side of the mountain spur, so this zone was not affected. Yet, in the upper reaches, both valleys are fed by the same sources and are subject to similar local weather stress.

No work on the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone section has been sanctioned till now. Of the total budget, about Rs 2,000-odd crore would have been spent on this stretch.

In 2019, the Supreme Court had appointed a high powered committee (HPC) under Ravi Chopra, Director of Dehradun-based People's Science Institute and a Managing Trustee of Himalaya Foundation, New Delhi, to examine the Char Dham project, particularly the Bhagirathi stretch, for environmental and other issues. The ministry itself acknowledged in a reply to Parliament this month that “13 projects could not be sanctioned, pending a decision on carriageway width among the members of the HPC”. While the committee gave its recommendation to the Supreme Court on December 31 last year, the road and defence ministries filed affidavits giving reasons why the projects with a widened span of tarmac should be allowed to continue.

A critical decision to be made is about the width of the carriageway for these 13 projects. A Supreme Court Bench had said the width of the roads should not be more than 5.5 metres. But the ministry wants the span to be 10 metres; it cites the needs of defence forces as well as the needs of the local community. 

These projects had landed in courts through a public interest litigation filed by a Dehradun-based civil society organisation, Citizens for Green Doon. Most road widening and repair of tracks in the Himalayas might have continued unabated under normal circumstances, but the building of the segment in the ecologically sensitive zone near Gangotri has attracted the attention of the environmental protection groups.

After the early-February tragedy, it is possible now that the court will be more concerned about the project. The next SC hearing on pending issues is on February 17. Based on the report, the road transport and highways ministry shall have to prepare its own action taken report of compliance with environmental protection measures based on the rapid Environment Impact Assessment.

Consequently, sticking to the work deadline is a long shot now. At one stage, the entire project was expected to be completed before the Kumbh Mela in March this year. “There are no fresh deadlines, as of now,” said a MoRTH source. Emails sent to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) did not elicit any response.

Statistics with the NHAI show construction of about 450 km road or about half of the projected length had been achieved as on December 31, 2020.

The Char Dham project is essentially an 825-km plan to redevelop existing roads, mostly national highways to provide improved and safer road connectivity from Rishikesh to Janki Chati for Yamunotri, Gangotri, Gaurikund for Kedarnath and Mana, India’s last village just past Badrinath. It also includes the Tanakpur to Pithoragarh section of the Kailash-Mansarovar route. Of these, the segment to the Pithoragarh segment and the ones to Badrinath and beyond have strategic significance too.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

* 40 stretches, worth Rs 9,474 crore, for 671 km has been sanctioned

* 38 stretches’ works contracts, worth Rs 8378 crore, have been awarded for 646 km

* 9 stretches, worth Rs 1025 crore, have been completed for 450km of road

(Source: ministry of road transport and highways)