‘Complete Chardham project in time-bound manner’

Dehradun, July 17: Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday asked all agencies concerned to speed up and complete the Chardham all weather road project in a timebound manner due to its strategic significance.

“Chardham road project is an ambitious project of PM Narendra Modi and is highly important strategically too. All clearances related to it should be obtained on a priority and the project completed within a set time frame,”

Mr Gadkari said at a meeting attended by CM Trivendra Singh Rawat via video conference.

Union minister of forest and environment Prakash Javadekar, minister of state for road transport Gen. V.K. Singh besides senior officials of the two ministries, BRO and the state government also attended the meeting. Pending matters related to land acquisition and forest and environment clearances for the project must be sorted out in a time-bound manner, Mr

Gadkari said.

The project under which 826 km of roads linking the four famous Himalayan temples of Uttarakhand is to be built at an estimated cost of `12,072 crore was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on December 27, 2016.

Work on construction of 350 km of roads under the ambitious project has been completed.

The chief minister also urged Gadkari to widen NH-87 which goes to Gairsain and NH-309 which if widened will connect Pithoragarh, Munsyari,

Didihat, Gangolihat and Chaukori Berinag that are very important from tourism point of view.

Widening NH-87 and converting it into twolane is a must as traffic load on the highway is going to increase with Gairsain having become Uttarakhand’s summer capital, he said.

Giving in-principle approval to the chief minister’s proposal, Gadkari asked him to submit a DPR on the project to his ministry as soon as possible.

Chardham road project is an ambitious project of the PM... All clearances related to it should be obtained on a priority — Nitin Gadkari, Transport minister