Incessant rains that lashed Garhwal region for the past few days have disturbed the Char Dham Yatra with the pilgrimage route being blocked at several places. Besides, the roads under the Public Works Department have also been blocked following landslides. The heavy downpour has also left Alaknanda, Mandakini and Pindar in a state of spate. While the water level of Alaknanda has reached 954.02 meter it is 867.27 meter for Mandakini and 768.62 meter for Pindar as recorded on Monday morning in Chamoli. The fury of rain continuing, the number of pilgrims bound for Badrinath, Kedarnath and Hemkund has seen a dip. On Tuesday, the pilgrimage to Kedarnath remained suspended due to effects of consistent rain on the bridle path to the shrine.
As per the chief engineer PWD Pauri that out of the 119 blocked roads in Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Pauri district under its jurisdiction, 95 roads have been reopened for the vehicular traffic while 24 roads are still blocked. Efforts are on to reopen them shortly, he added.
Out of the 28 roads that were blocked in Chamoli district, 26 have reopened while two are still closed. In Rudraprayag district, out of the 29 roads blocked due to landslides, 24 have reopened while five are still blocked for traffic. In Pauri district, out of the 62 blocked roads, 45 have reopened while 17 are still closed.
Border Road Organisation sources said that they are engaged in clearing the highways leading to the four shrines-Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri- of the debris brought by the landslides.