Landslide washes away Char Dham road stretch in Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand received 20.4 mm rainfall in 24 hour period (till 8.30 am Monday), with maximum 80.8 mm rain in Rudraprayag district
A 100-metre stretch of Char Dham road on the Badrinath national highway between Gauchar and Rudraprayag near Kameda village in Chamoli district was washed away on Monday due to heavy rains leaving pilgrims stranded on both sides. Officials rushed top the spot to provide relief to the pilgrims.
Himanshu Khurana, district magistrate Chamoli district said, “A 100 m stretch of main Badrinath National Highway has washed away due to a major landslide that occurred in the morning and the directions have been given to the national Highway officials and repair the stretch. Meanwhile, traffic has been diverted via an alternative route- Karnapryag-Pokhri-Mohan Khal -Kanak Chauri and then to Rudraprayag”.
Heavy rains in the state — Uttarakhand has 471.9 mm of rain till July 24 morning (since July 1 this year), compared to the long period average of 314.9 mm — have resulted in a spate of landslides. The Char Dham project, connecting four holy towns, has also been pitched as a way to improve connectivity to the border to facilitate the movement of troops to the line of actual control between India and China. However, environmentalists have repeatedly warned that the expanded width of the highway, and the fact that it cuts into hill sides, renders the already fragile geology of the region even more fragile.
Ripu Daman Singh, a hotelier from Nandprayag said, “ Kameda, the place where the road has been washed out falls three kilometres ahead of Gauchar and it is the main yatra route for Badrinath shrine, and considering the scale of damage it will take more than two to three days to reopen the road.”
The alternative road from Pokhri is 84 kilometres long and is also blocked at Bingad, near Odamanda village and at Devsthan near Pokhri due to landslides and boulders, he added.
But Khurana said that PWD officials “have been directed to open the (alternative) road on the route and two to three stretches have already opened for traffic.”
Half of Chamoli district has been cut off with its district administration headquarters at Gopeshwar due to the damage to the roads, said Ravindra Singh resident of Gopeshwar.
The state received 20.4 mm rainfall in 24 hour period (till 8.30 am Monday), with maximum 80.8 mm rain in Rudraprayag district, followed by 56.4 mm rain in Bageshwar, 40 mm rain in Chamoli and 25 mm in Uttarkashi, according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Dehradun Centre.
IMD Dehradun Centre has also forecast heavy rain in the state on July 25 and 27 and heavy to very heavy rain on July 26 and 28 .
Heavy rain falls in the range of 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm/day, while very heavy rain is in the range of 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm/day. Over 336 roads have been blocked due to landslides, and boulder fall triggered by rains that lashed the state, according to Public Works Department on Monday. According to the daily flood report released by the Central Water Commission at 8 am on Monday, six rivers in the state breached warning levels .
Alaknanda in the Garhwal region, and Mandakini in Rudraprayag were both flowing above the danger mark, according to Central Water Commission data . “We have shifted the residents living on the banks of the confluence of two rivers at Rudraprayag, and we closely monitoring the situation,” said NS Rajwar, district disaster management authority officer Rudraprayag.