No Link Between Uttarakhand Floods, Highway Construction: Centre

The strategic 900-km Char Dham highway project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath -- in Uttarakhand.

Construction and widening of roads for the Char Dham project did not contribute to the Uttarakhand floods disaster, parliament was informed on Monday. The strategic 900-km Char Dham highway project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath -- in Uttarakhand. "As per reports received from Government of Uttarakhand, Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Defence Geo-informatics Research Establishment (DGRE), construction and widening of roads for the Char Dham project did not contribute to the Uttarakhand floods disaster," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. As per scientific evidence available with the state government, this was purely a natural event with no indication of human footprint directly attributable to its cause, he added.