Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the 900-km-long Char Dham Highway Development Programme in Dehradun with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore. The road, once constructed, will ensure round-the-year, hassle-free travel to these shrines and the famous Sikh shrine Hemkund Saheb. Modi said that the Char Dham project would offer employment opportunities for the people of Uttarakhand. He said that he could see that Uttarakhand wanted development and tourism is the biggest asset of Uttarakhand.
The project involves widening the existing, geometrically deficient highway that connects the four abodes. Apart from widening, the road transport and highways ministry plans to improve the stretches to two-lane carriageway with paved shoulders, protect landslide hazard zones, construct bypasses, long bridges, tunnels and elevated corridors to ensure safety for the users. A team of experts is already on the job to identify zones that are prone to landslides. Environment friendly techniques are being incorporated in the design to make these zones safer.
The cost would include civil construction as well as land acquisition, forest clearance and utility shifting. Work on the project amounting to Rs 2,000 crore has already been started under the Char Dham programme, particularly on the stretches which are free from encumbrances. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari expects the project to be completed by 2018.
The highway network along Char Dham got severely devastated following the cloudburst in 2013. Assuming charge, the Modi-led dispensation decided to upgrade the national highways network in the upper Himalayan region.