E-Paper
Widening of Char Dham road: Govt cites China border link
Dehradun: The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has increased the width of the main Char Dham Road to 7 metres by modifying a 2018 regulation, citing
Dehradun: The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has increased the width of the main Char Dham Road to 7 metres by modifying a 2018 regulation, citing its strategic national importance as a link to the India-China border, restoring it to its original width after the Supreme Court ordered that it be reduced it to 5.5 metres.
In the modification to the regulation that dealt with highways in hill areas, the ministry said the width of the main carriageway should be 7 metres. In 2018, the ministry reduced the width of the main carriageway of roads in hilly terrain to a maximum of 5.5 metres to reduce the environmental impact of road development.
“For roads in hilly and mountainous terrain which act as feeder roads to the Indo-China border or are of strategic importance for national security, the carriageway width should be 7m with 1.5m paved shoulder on either side,” the ministry said in an order issued on Tuesday and made public on Thursday. It added: “The standards prescribed therein have been further reviewed in the Ministry in light of the issues raised by Ministry of Defence.”
“We will now be following this new circular with carriageway width of 7 metres. Following these new norms, the total road width would come up to be 10m. Before the Supreme Court’s order in September, the total road width of 10m was being followed,” said VS Khaira, chief engineer at the regional office of MoRTH in Uttarakhand and project in-charge of the Char Dham Road project,
He said that through an affidavit filed by the defence ministry in the Supreme Court, the Centre had been able to explain to the court the importance of the road and “we hope that the court will allow us” to build a 10 metre wide road.
The Supreme Court in September ruled that the width of the Char Dham highway, an ambitious 900-kilometre project that promises to offer all-weather connectivity to four Hindu pilgrimage centres in Uttarakhand, and the ancillary benefit of facilitating rapid movement of Indian military forces to areas adjoining its border with China, shall not exceed the 5.5 metres specified in 2018 by MoRTH for roads under construction in mountainous terrain.
The order came at a time when the Indian Army was locked in a tense military standoff with the People’s Liberation Army of China in the Eastern Ladakh theatre.
On December 2, the SC was told by the defence ministry that the court order limiting the width of the Char Dham Road to 5.5 metres posed serious repercussions for the country’s defence preparedness along the border points with China and Nepal.
Both the road transport and defence ministries were aggrieved by the SC’s September 8 order mandating that the width be restricted to the 5.5 metres recommended by five members of a 26-member high-powered committee (HPC) headed by Ravi Chopra. The members, part of a faction opposed to the project on environmental grounds, had written to the court on October 5 and November 2 that constant tree felling by the Uttarakhand government was causing landslides along the Char Dham route.
The defence ministry, in an affidavit filed in the he Supreme Court on the Char Dham road project, said the national highways from Rishikesh to Mana, Rishikesh to Gangotri and Tanakpur to Pithoragarh were also strategic and feeder roads for the India-China border. These roads are also a part of the Char Dham road project which means their width too can increase.
The court asked the HPC to examine the concerns of the two ministries and submit its report within two weeks. The next hearing on the matter is on January 18, 2021.
When asked if the new road width would be followed for the whole project, Hemant Dhyani, a member of the faction of the HPC opposed to the project, said: “We have discussed the new circular issued by MoRTH in our recent meeting, but we cannot comment on anything as the matter is subjudice. The HPC will be submitting a report to the Supreme Court within a week’s time.”
Environmentalists are opposed to the Central government going ahead with the project in violation of the environment norms and challenged the project in the Supreme Court. The project was separated into 100 parts to escape a comprehensive environmental review by the environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee, activists alleged. The government has claimed that it followed all environmental norms.
The project is being developed by the Uttarkhand government’s Public Works Department, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL). The road will provide all- weather connectivity to the Hindu pilgrim centres of Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
