More houses develop cracks in Joshimath; total count nears 850
On January 4, two days after local residents heard a deep rumble and woke up to see long, deep cracks running down walls, the number of affected buildings was 561. In its latest bulletin on Tuesday, the Chamoli district administration said the number of affected buildings increased by 288, to 849.
Over 280 buildings have developed cracks in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath town since the first week of January due to land subsidence, taking the overall number of affected buildings in the city area to 849 on Tuesday, according to government data.
On January 4, two days after local residents heard a deep rumble and woke up to see long, deep cracks running down walls, the number of affected buildings was 561. In its latest bulletin on Tuesday, the Chamoli district administration said the number of affected buildings increased by 288, to 849.
State disaster management secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha said a time frame has been fixed by the Centre’s various technical institutions to complete their studies on various aspects of land subsidence in Joshimath.
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“This includes three weeks for a team of 10 scientists from Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), two weeks for a team of 10 scientists of National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad for a preliminary report and three weeks for the final report, two weeks to a team of seven scientists of Wadia Institute for Himalayan Geology for a preliminary report and three weeks for the final report…,” he told reporters.
According to the bulletin, the maximum number of houses (161) which developed cracks were in Ravigram ward. This was followed by Gandhinagar (154 houses), from where the maximum number of residents have been evacuated.
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Atul Sati, convenor of Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, claimed the number of houses affected due to land subsidence rose sharply since December last year. He said the “first case of cracks appearing in a house was reported in the town’s Gandhi Nagar area in November 2021”.
“The situation is turning worse day by day. If the cracks in my house widen further, we will have no option but to leave the town,” Bahwan Singh Negi, a local resident, said.
Apart for that, houses, hotels and government-owned structures have also been affected due to the land subsidence.
The CBRI declared the public works department inspection building as unsafe and its demolition is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, officials said.
The land subsidence has also affected the upper and lower portion of the Tehsil building, instilling fear among those visiting the premises for work.
Chamoli district magistrate Himanshu Khurana said the administration has identified 615 rooms in 83 areas as temporary relief camps for residents.
A total of 2,190 people can be accommodated in these camps.
On Thursday, the district administration began the process of razing Hotel Malari Inn and began dismantling the adjoining damaged Mount View the next day, over fears that if one hotel is demolished at a time, the other would topple over.