The Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Char Dham Yatra — a safe and easy passage to Devbhoomi- a project in a ceremony organised by the Union ministry of road transport and highways at Parade Ground in the city on Tuesday. The ambitious Rs 12000 Crore project involves improvement of 900 km of highways connecting the pilgrim centres of Yamumotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. later, addressing a large public gathering, the Union minister of road transport Nitin Gadkari claimed that the all- weather road to Char Dham would be an engineering marvel and would have 13 bypasses/ realignment, two tunnels, 25 major bridges and three flyovers. He said that the Kedarnath disaster of 2013 had wreaked havoc in the state, causing colossal loss of human lives and ruining the highway network in the upper Himalayan region. The ministry of road transport and highways decided to up-grade the National Highways network in this region by enhancing the safety of these roads, he said. The minister further said that the project is slated to be completed by the year 2020, but efforts would be made to complete it before this time. He said that he wished the Prime Minister himself embark on the road journey to Char Dhams from Haridwar once the project is completed. He said that works on the project have already started as the process on tenders for 17 projects worth Rs 3000 crores has been initiated.
The project has been divided into seven packages. In the package I, a 140 km stretch of road from Rishikesh to Rurdraprayag would be improved with an estimated cost of Rs 1824.88 crores. A stretch of 160 km of NH- 58 from Rudraprayag to Mana village (Badrinath) would be renovated at a cost of Rs 1498.05 crores in II package, the minister said. Similarly, an amount of Rs 1687.70 Crore would be spent on the 144 km stretch of road between Rishikesh to Dharasu on NH 94. In the package IV, the road link between Dharasu to Gangotri on NH 108 would be improved while Rs 1368.17 crore would be spent on 95 km long stretch of road between Dharasu to Yamnotri. In the VI package, an amount of Rs 1040.56 crore is earmarked for improvement of 76 km of road link between Rurdraprayag to Gaurikund. Apart from the Char Dhams, the project would also take up a stretch of 150 km from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh at an estimated cost of Rs 1716.84 crores. The proposed improvement include widening of existing narrow highways to two lane carriageway, protection of landslide hazard zones, construction of bypasses, bridges, tunnels and elevated corridors. For convenience of tourists, 18 wayside amenities like motels and shops would be constructed alongside the highways. The project would also have 154 bus stands, bays and truck bays, the minister added.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, BJP MPs from the state- Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and also Ajay Tamta who also is a Union minister of state. This aside, Vijay Bahuguna, the former Chief Minister and dissident Congress-turned BJP leader, was present.