E-Paper
Nearly 600km work on Char Dham road expansion over, Supreme Court told
Over a year since the Supreme Court permitted the Union government to widen roads leading to the India-China border as part of the Char Dham project, the Centre has completed work on nearly 600km of the 900km of roads.
Over a year since the Supreme Court permitted the Union government to widen roads leading to the India-China border as part of the Char Dham project, the Centre has completed work on nearly 600km of the 900km of roads to provide better connectivity to the four Hindu shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
With the road widening project being monitored by an oversight committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, committee chairman, retired justice AK Sikri, submitted a report to the court detailing the status of construction along the 53 sub-projects covering 889km at an estimated cost of ₹12,130 crore.
The report submitted to the court in August gave a table presented to it by the roads ministry that provided a break-up of the 53 projects. In all, 38 projects covering 646km have been awarded. “Out of 646km of awarded length work, work has been completed in 578.6km,” the report prepared by the committee said.
This was the second report prepared by the committee since the order passed by the court on December 14, 2021, allowed the Centre and army to construct double-lane all-weather roads with 10m width as opposed to the existing 5.5m wide roads. The order came on two separate applications moved by the defence and roads ministries. The Army had cited operational exigencies in demanding a wider road as some of these roads were required to mobilize heavy artillery and defence equipment to the strategic India-China border points.
The court, while acceding to the Centre’s request had formed a panel headed by retired justice Sikri to ensure there was no damage to the environment and the fragile ecosystem of the mountains while undertaking the widening of the roads. Of the 53 projects, 12 are yet to be sanctioned, which involve a length of 147km.
Giving details of the 41 projects sanctioned by the roads ministry, the justice Sikri committee said work on 19 projects was complete, while 19 projects were ongoing and tenders have been issued for two.
On December 13, a bench of Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha took the report on record and directed a copy of it to be supplied to all parties appearing in the case.
The road widening of the Char Dham project was opposed by NGO Citizens for Green Doon, which relied on a September 2020 order of the top court directing that mountain roads cannot be more than 5.5m wide. The petitioner cited environmental concerns in allowing widening up to 10m.
Following the September 2020 decision of the apex court, the government sought modification of the judgment by filing applications. The court referred the Centre’s plea to a 26 member committee. This committee in its report on December 31, 2020, approved widening the carriageway. However, four members of the panel, including its chairman Ravi Chopra, dissented, saying the area in question was ecologically fragile and prone to landslides.
Earlier this year, Chopra quit as chairman of the committee. In March, the top court requested justice Sikri to take over as chairman of the committee as well.
