About a year after Prime minister Narendra Modi launched the Kedarpuri reconstruction project, most works would be finished soon, officials said.
The ruling BJP said Modi might visit the shrine town in the Chardham for a spot inspection in October.
Work is in full swing with BJP insiders claiming that the official machinery is under pressure from the Centre to complete the project before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “He (Modi) is personally monitoring the Kedarpuri reconstruction project as he wants it to be completed by early next year; he plans to launch our party’s election campaign from the hill state,” said an office-bearer of the BJP’s Uttarakhand unit.
State BJP general secretary Naresh Bansal said the timely completion of Kedarpuri, where lakhs of Hindu devotees from all over the country visit annually, would add to the party’s popularity. “The shrine town being a part of our party’s ideology of cultural nationalism, its timely reconstruction would certainly add to our countrywide popularity,” he said when asked if the Kedarpuri reconstruction would help the BJP in the 2019 parliamentary polls.
Modi launched the Kedarpuri reconstruction project four years after the fabled shrine town was struck by the cataclysmic floods that left thousands dead. The eighth century Kedarnath temple, built by Adi Shankaracharya, also suffered damages.
{{/usCountry}}Modi launched the Kedarpuri reconstruction project four years after the fabled shrine town was struck by the cataclysmic floods that left thousands dead. The eighth century Kedarnath temple, built by Adi Shankaracharya, also suffered damages.
{{/usCountry}}During a visit to Kedarpuri the HT team noticed that barring a small stretch, the widening of the 500-metre approach road to the Kedarnath shrine is complete. It has also been paved with tiles. The area on the front side of the temple has been widened after relocating the homes of some Teerth Purohits (priests). The area has also been paved with tiles.
The front portion of the shrine is now visible even from a distance. “Besides, the shrine is now easily approachable to lakhs of pilgrims who visit the shrine annually,” said Deep Chandra Nawani, assistant engineer, public works department.
“There are now two separate rows of pilgrims who come for darshan of Lord Kedarnath and those who return after having darshan.”
Before the widening of the approach road, Nawani said, the entire space up to the shrine used to remain heavily congested, especially during the first two months of the six-month-long pilgrimage season that starts from June.
According to officials, 90% of work relating to the construction of the bathing ghat and embankment along the river Mandakini is complete.
“I think all the works will be completed by October-end,” said Manoj Semwal of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, which is engaged in the construction of ghats and embankments.
Semwal said it would take time before the construction of a bathing ghat and flood protection wall along the river Saraswati would be completed. “Efforts are on and, we hope that those works too would be completed by October-end,” chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh Said, adding the track to Bhairon Mandir on the left side of the Kedarnath shrine is being rebuilt.
The construction of the four-km stretch of the ‘All Terrain Vehicle Road’ connecting Kedarnath and Rambada, the town that was completely washed away by the 2013 floods, was also on full swing, officials said. “We are under tremendous pressure from our bosses to complete the works by the month-end as the Prime Minister might inspect that route during his visit to the state slated for October 7,” an official said requesting anonymity. “That,” he clarified, “is an alternative route after a separate route to Rambada was built along the Kedarnth wildlife sanctuary after the old trekking route was washed away by the 2013 flash floods.”
Chief secretary Singh said he had no information about the Prime Minister’s visit but clarified that some major works relating to the Kedarpuri project would be completed by October-end.
“It will take time before other works, such as beautification of the rear portion of the shrine, construction of a mausoleum of Adi Shakracharya and underground cabling, would be completed,” he said. “Things take time because the terrain where our men are working is tough and the weather mostly remains hostile.”