Wednesday, 24 August 2022 | PNS | New Tehri
The all-weather road is being blocked by landslides at various locations along its length. Questions are being raised at the construction works of the road due to landslide near the Kumharkheda bypass not far from Narendranagar on the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway. Environmental activists aver that disasters are being invited by unscientific and unsystematic cutting of mountains for the construction of the all-weather road project.
The problems being faced by the people have been exacerbated due to the danger zone becoming active at Narendranagar on the Rishikesh-Chamba highway. Heavy boulders fell on the highway near Kumharkheda on Sunday night which totally blocked traffic on the road. Mechanical excavators have been deployed to clear the road and enable its reopening but the boulders are so large and numerous that it is taking time to break and dump them in another place. Considering the problems being faced by the people, traffic going towards Rishikesh and Haridwar is being diverted via Police Training College while larger vehicles are being stopped at Bhadrakali.
It is pertinent to mention here that all-weather road work has been completed on the Rishikesh-Chamba national highway. However, the danger zone in the Narendranagar area becoming active has raised questions at the road construction. Member of the Supreme Court ordered high powered committee, Hemant Dhyani said that cutting for the all-weather road project has been undertaken in an unscientific and unsystematic manner due to which steep mountain slopes have become more vulnerable. This in turn has created many landslide zones. Former member of the committee and geologist Naveen Juyal said that no provision has been made for slope management in road widening works. The mountain slopes are being unnecessarily tampered with in road widening works which has activated numerous danger zones, he added.
