Badrinath highway restoration yet to begin :BJP

Nine months after a catastrophic deluge wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand, work on the damaged infrastructure in the danger zones identified on Badrinath highway is yet to begun, main opposition BJP today alleged.

It is nine months since the flashfloods caused largescale damage to roads on the char dham route. Still work has not begun on the 27 danger zones identified on Rishikesh-Badrinath highway, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt said.

27 slide zones including Pandukeshwar, Lambagad, Jankichatti and many others had been identified along the highway by the BRO, a few months after the June calamity last year but there has been no progress in work in these areas, he claimed.

Only two months are left for the char dham pilgrimage to begin with portals of Kedarnath to be thrown open for devotees on May 4 but motor roads from Sonprayag to Gaurikund and from Lambagad to Jankichatti have still not been repaired, he said.

Bhatt alleged the Centre has not allocated funds to the BRO which finds it difficult to start work on the damaged roads in the absence of money. Recently the BRO retrenched about 1500 labourers due to an acute funds crunch.

278 villages are to be rehabilitated in the affected areas but not a single penny has been released by the Centre, Bhatt claimed.

He said Congress vice President Rahul Gandhi who addressed a rally here late last month did not make any announcements in this regard.

Buildings worth Rs 300 crore are lying destroyed close to Kedarnath shrine in which hundreds of corpses are still feared lying beneath the debris, Bhatt said in a scenario like this beginning the char dham yatra as per the schedule appears impossible.

Asking Chief Minister Harish Rawat to stop making tall claims about rehabilitation endeavours in the affected areas, Bhatt advised him to pay heed to real bottlenecks in the path of rebuilding lives in the calamity hit zones.