On late Saturday evening, the landslide became active and boulders began to roll down.
Police conducting search and rescue operation at Chandikadhar on the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund Kedarnath road on Sunday, October 20, 2019. (SNS)
Eight persons were killed in a freak accident on the Rudraprayag-Kedarnath highway when their vehicles in which they were traveling got hit by boulders. The construction work of the all-weather road is presently going on the highway connecting the famous Hindu shrine. On late Saturday evening, the landslide became active and boulders began to roll down. The boulders hit two motorcycles and one car. The dislodged vehicles fell into a deep gorge.
Uttarakhand government has instituted a magisterial inquiry into the incident. Expressing grief over the accident, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has directed the district administration to provide financial assistance to the affected families. He directed the administration to provide Rs 2 lakh each from the Chief Minister’s discretionary fund to the affected family. The CM also ordered a magisterial inquiry.
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The incident took place at Chandikadhar, near Phata on the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund Kedarnath road at 7 pm. The local police and a team of State Disaster Response Force rushed to the spot after receiving information from the villagers and started the rescue work. The team was successful in recovering three bodies on Saturday. Search and rescue operations continued on Sunday and five more bodies were recovered. But the toll could go high.
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In a similar incident, 10 laborers were crushed to death at Banswara landslide on the Kedarnath highway in December last year.
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