Char Dham project gets Rs 2,070 cr extra grant from Centre

New Delhi, July 24

The Centre’s ambitious Chardham project to provide all-weather connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri in Uttarakhand got a shot in the arm with the Finance Ministry sanctioning an extra budgetary support of Rs 2,070 crore for the project.

The project aims at connecting the four religious places at a cost of Rs 11,700 crore. “The Finance Ministry has approved an extra budgetary support of Rs 2,070 crore for the Chardham project under which work is in progress to provide all-weather connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri,” an official said.

The allocation is in addition to Rs 55,000 crore budgetary provision for the highways sector for 2016-17.

The National Highway Connectivity Improvement Programme for Char Dham includes development of all-weather roads for which seven stretches of 889 km are under the detailed project report.

To enhance the safety of road users, provisions like widening of narrow and geometrically deficient national highways to two-lane carriageway, protection of landslide hazard zones, construction of bypasses, long bridges, tunnels and elevated corridors are being made, the official said.

Presenting the Budget for 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said infrastructure was one of the strong pillars of the economy.

Besides Char Dham, the ministry is developing roads to provide connectivity to Buddhist Circuit which covers Vaishali, Patna, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Kahalgaon and Vikramshila in Bihar. — PTI