SC Clear Chardham Highway Project

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CHAR DHAM PILGRIMAGE

The Supreme Court has cleared the decks for the Chardham highway project, which will connect four holy places in the hills of Uttarakhand through 900-km all weather roads, by modifying an NGT order to constitute a fresh committee to look into environmental concerns.
It ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forest to form the high-powered committee (HPC) by August 22.

The proposed four-lane expressway to Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Bardinath in the hill state has been among the flagship projects of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
But the idea of the 900-kilometre road network in the sensitive mountains of Uttarakhand drew scepticism from environmental activists who fear the highways and the tourists they would bring in will be at the cost of the ecological balance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Char Dham highway development project or Chardham MahamargVikas Pariyojna in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. In 2016
The Chardham MahamargVikas Pariyojna is an ambitious initiative to improve connectivity to the Char Dham pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas.

The project involves developing and widening 900-km of national highways connecting the holy Hindu pilgrimage sites of; Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri at an estimated cost of Rs.12,000 crores.
The highway will be called Char Dham Mahamarg(Char Dham Highway) and the highway construction project will be called as Char Dham MahamargVikas Pariyojana(Char Dham Highway Development Project).
The roads will be widened from 12m to 24m and the project will involve construction of tunnels, bypasses, bridges, subways and viaducts.

As part of the project, 15 big bridges, 101 small bridges, 3596 culverts, and 12 bypass roads would be constructed.
Besides, 29 landslide zones, falling on the highway, would be treated.

The controversial Char Dham expressway project will miss its March 2020 deadline as the government is blaming the ongoing litigation related to the environment.