Acting on a letter sent by two experts — a current and a former member of a Supreme Court-appointed committee — the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is learnt to have directed implementing agencies to re-examine the safety of certain stretches of the under-construction Uttarkashi-Gangotri road, under the Char Dham highway project in Uttarakhand.
The letter was sent on August 12, a week after flash floods and landslides destroyed Dharali village near Harsil, on the Gangotri highway in Uttarkashi district.
The experts, geologist Navin Juyal and social expert and environmentalist Hemant Dhyani, were part of the high-powered committee appointed by the Supreme Court in August 2019 when it was examining the environmental concerns raised about the Char Dham project. While Juyal resigned from the panel last year, Dhyani continues to be a member.
In the letter, Juyal and Dhyani suggested a reassessment of the environmentally-sensitive road project, and referred to modifications proposed in an alternative detailed project report (DPR) they had submitted in October 2023, after consultations with the ministry. They warned that future road works in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone cannot be based on old designs.
They pointed out that despite their warnings, a uniform 10-metre widening of the Valley-side slopes was carried out in lesser and higher Himalayas, creating new chronic landslide zones along the widened roads. The 2023 DPR had suggested certain measures that could minimise tree felling and slope tampering.
In response, the ministry, through its regional office in Dehradun, is learnt to have instructed the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation India Limited (THDC) to address the concerns raised by the experts and review the slope protection and landslide measures. THDC works as a consultant with MoRTH to study landslide susceptibility areas, and recommends mitigation measures for road stretches under development, including the Char Dham highway.
More specifically, the Dehradun office of the ministry, in its direction on August 20, asked THDC to examine the slope protection and landslide treatment measures undertaken on the route. It also asked THDC to refer to the alternative DPR of October 2023 and initiate an assessment and review of the scope of slope protection works across the five stretches on the route. The THDC has been instructed to provide its technical recommendations to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the constructing agency.
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Speaking to The Indian Express, Raj Kishore, superintending engineer, BRO, confirmed that a team of THDC and MoRTH officials would review the alignments in Uttarkashi district in the coming days.
In a related development, the ministry has also taken note of a petition sent to it by the Uttarkashi civil society forum, Himalayi Nagrik Drusti Manch, asking that the Char Dham project works be halted in light of the Dharali disaster. The ministry has asked the BRO to review civil society concerns, and report back to it.
The five stretches on the Uttarkashi-Gangotri route of NH34 include Gangotri to Jhala (28.6 km), Heena to Tekhla (8.07 km), which is also known as the Netala bypass road, Tekhla to Gyansu (5.20 km), Jhala to Garampani (15.7 km) and Garampani to Heena (29.5 km). The Uttarakhand forest department recently cleared the Netala bypass project that will need felling of 2,750 trees in untouched forest area.
In the 2023 DPR, Juyal and Dhyani had proposed shelving the Netala bypass near Uttarkashi as it involves felling of trees in untouched forest area situated on old landslide deposits. The experts had also suggested a road diversion through a bridge near Sukhi top, instead of a bypass alignment proposed through a toe of old landslide debris.
