Badrinath Highway opens after 7 Days

The Badrinath RajMarg Highway has been closed at Vishnuprayag for the last 7 days and it finally opened for vehicle transportation last Monday. Last Tuesday and Wednesday saw the deposition of huge quantities of Rubble, boulders and stone chunks on the path. Clearance work has been going on since then.

On Monday the boulders have been destroyed and a layer of mud has been deposited on the rubble to create a temporary road that can allow the tourist traffic to progress. Pilgrims and tourists had to face a lot of problem in dealing with the closed highway.

Previously pilgrims had to tackle the 3 km arduous broken highway tract on foot before availing vehicle to the Dham. This was causing a serious slow down in traffic movement. The BRO had begun work of boulder explosion since 9 A.M in the morning and the rubble clearance work had also started from then.

About 30 meters of road had been obstructed with boulders and they have been subsequently cleared by explosives. At 7 p.m. the BRO had used explosives to burst away the last boulder on the route. Mud was then slammed over the rubble to make a temporary road.

The BRO Commander Colonel R Subhramanyam had stated that the transportation of vehicles had restarted from last night on Sunday after mud had been laid down for the temporary path. The first action was to release the 80 odd vehicles which were stuck at the Badrinath transit point.

However the ice clearance work at Kanchenjungha has not yet been completed. Up to 5 feet of ice has still been found at the Kanchan Jungha More. When the authorities were unable to clear the ice on the highway the BRO was instructed to fill in the gaps of the ice boulders with more ice, put iron platings on top and then create a temporary road for the passage of vehicles.
News & Image Source : dehradun.amarujala.com/