The Public Works Department (PWD) will soon invite tenders for stabilisation work on perennially troublesome lambagar slide zone located on Char Dham Yatra route. The department has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) of Rs90 crore for the project. Confirming the development, Chief Engineer National Highways PWD, Hariom Sharma told The Pioneer that massive stabilisation work on the troublesome patch of road would start after the rainy season. He said the work will be completed before the next Yatra season and claimed it would be a smooth affair for the pilgrims.
located 145 kilimomtres from Dehradun on the Joshimath-Badrinath route, lambagar has assumed notoriety for massive landslides prompting authorities to halt Yatra many times in the past. The landslides are a regular phenomenon especially in the mountainous terrain. Slides normally occur when the stability of the slope changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors, acting together or alone.
Senior Geologist of PWD Vijay Dangwal told The Pioneer that the work on a chronic slide zone involves a detailed planning and plenty of resources. The process to stabilise a slope involves conventional methods like removal of material around the slide zone and construction of Gabbian walls. Dangwal said that nowadays the slopes are stabilised by modern methods like soil nailing, soil netting, rock bolting, surface drainage, sub surface drainage, geo jute technique and geo grid techniques. In additions to the above mentioned methods plantations on the slide zones are also helpful to prevent the soil from yielding.