By Our Staff Reporter
Chamoli, 12 Jul: The Badrinath National Highway near Joshimath was made operational for pedestrian movement today. Later in the day, vehicle movement was also permitted on the Chamoli Badrinath highway. The highway was opened after the road blockage near Jogi Dhara due to landslide was cleared of debris and boulders. A large number of vehicles and thousands of passengers including the pilgrims were stranded on the highway for the past several days. Due to the highway blockage, even the polling parties returning to district headquarters after the polling in Badrinath Assembly by-poll were stranded and had to walk over 9 kilometres in order to reach their destination. The people as well as the administration have heaved a sigh of relief after the movement of traffic started on the road.
It may be recalled that thousands of devotees were stranded on the highway due to the blockage of the road and were waiting for the highway to open. After over 60 hours since the blockage, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had opened the way for pedestrian movement to begin with. Passengers going to Badrinath Dham and Hemkund Sahib were facing problems due to the blockage of the highway. Due to continuous rain in Chamoli district, to clear the blockage of debris and the boulders became a major challenge and despite continuous efforts that lasted around 3 days, the BRO was able to make the highway operational. Meanwhile, the traffic on both sides of the landslide zone remained stranded for almost four days.
Initially the highway was opened slowly for pedestrian movement only. BRO was trying to make the highway and pedestrian movement operational by cutting the rocks with big machines. Senior BRO officials were also present on the spot. The administration team was also present there and is learnt to be still present at the landslide zone, handling the responsibility of security. During the time, when the road was completely blocked for any traffic movement, Police, SDRF, NDRF constantly appealed to the passengers to be patient. Thousands of passengers stranded on the Badrinath highway faced all kinds of inconvenience. The monsoon rains are wreaking havoc in several parts of Uttarakhand this season with Kumaon bearing the brunt of the damage. Many connecting and link roads have also been obstructed due to continuous rain.
When the blockage was partially cleared, a large number of two-wheelers stranded for four days were also evacuated. SDM Joshimath informed that out of three thousand stranded pilgrims, 1,500 were evacuated. About 3,000 devotees are stranded at various places between Govindghat and Joshimath. On the other hand, there were a large number of devotees going to Badrinath, but returned without waiting for the highway to open after paying obeisance from Pipalkoti (80 km before Badrinath).
It may be recalled that a big part of a giant rock had broken off and fallen from the hill at Chungidhara near Joshimath along the Badrinath highway on 9 July. Since then, movement of traffic and travellers on foot was completely halted.
