Badrinath highway closed temporarily due to landslide; Pilgrims resume yatra
The highway was cleared by the employees from the border road organisation, which led to the pilgrims’ yatra resuming without any hindrance, officials said
The national highway to Badrinath was closed temporarily due to landslides at Kuchda Nullah near the 500-metre stretch of Lambagad due to incessant rains, leaving around 1,000 pilgrims on their way to Badrinath stranded for a brief period on Tuesday evening, officials said.
“The road near Kuchda Nullah was closed due to falling boulders after the incessant rains on Tuesday evening and the area was cleared by the employees from the border road organisation, which led to yatra resuming without any hindrance,” said Ankit Sangwan, assistant engineer, Public Works Division (NH division).
“The traffic movement was normal on Wednesday morning,” said NK Joshi, district disaster management officer, Chamoli.
The landslide incident occurred near the Lambagad landslide zone, which has now been treated by the PWD NH division, and after a request the Ministry of road transport and highways has entrusted the assigned road back to the border road organisation, said Sangwan.
JCB machines were deployed by the administration to open the road, which was finally done overnight.
“The Kuchda Nullah drain brought garbage along with the debris resulting in an overflow of the water on the road to Badrinath,” said Rajvir Singh, a local resident.
Meanwhile, Hemkund Sahib Yatra, which was stalled on Monday due to heavy snow on the route towards the shrine, resumed after a temporary halt on Tuesday.
Around 7,000 pilgrims were stopped from moving to the shrine as a precautionary measure due to the slippery route after the spell of snow, said Chamoli district officials.
“Yatra to Shri Hemkund Sahib was temporarily stalled on Monday by the state administration due to continuous snowfall but the Yatra has been resumed and pilgrims from all stations are now proceeding towards Shri Hemkunt Sahib,” said NS Bindra, vice president of Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib Trust.
So far over 95,808 pilgrims have visited the Hemkund Sahib shrine and the number is likely to rise in the month of July after the sowing season is over in Punjab and other areas on the northern plains of India, said the trust officials.
Meanwhile, 8,00,096 pilgrims have visited the Badrinath shrine so far and the Char Dham route is open for traffic to Badrinath, said district disaster management authority Chamoli district.
The rainfall registered at Chamoli till Tuesday was 4.2 millimetres, at Joshimath 2.6 millimetres and the Mandakini, Alaknanda and Pinder rivers were flowing below the danger marks, said district disaster management authority officials