Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, on Monday, demanded from Prime minister Narendra Modi to clear a plethora of pending projects of the state awaiting Centre’s nod for years.

Dhami also asked Modi to close the existing Rishikesh railway station for the newly-built Yog Nagri Railway Station.

Advertisement

He thanked the prime minister for nominating Rishikesh as an iconic city in river rafting and requested him to provide technical and financial resources to develop Haridwar-Rishikesh Ganga corridor in Garhwal and Sharda corridor projects in Kumaon regions of the state. He said that these projects are difficult to be realised because of the state’s limited resources.

He requested him to close the old railway station of Rishikesh for the proposed infrastructural development works in Rishikesh. The Uttarakhand chief minister asked Modi to operate trains from the new Yoga Nagari Railway Station of Rishikesh and allow the state to use old rail track and land for constructing new road systems as it will lead to better traffic movements in the city.

Dhami asked the PM to also help the state government with technological support to develop and harness geothermal energy for power generation in n the state. He said an MoU is proposed with the Iceland Embassy for the exploitation of geothermal energy in the state. The state has obtained no objection certificate from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of External Affairs for inking the MoU.

According to Dhami, the centre needs to provide technical and financial support for this project so that Uttarakhand could play an important role in achieving the goal of carbon net zero by the year 2070.

Sharing information about the progress of Jal Jeevan Mission in Uttarakhand, the chief minister urged the PM to release the remaining amount of the Central contribution allocated to the mission soon.

Dhami further requested Modi to direct the officials concerned for approval of Rishikesh Bypass, Haridwar Bypass (Package 2), Dehradun – Mussoorie Connectivity, Lalkuan, Haldwani and Kathgodam bypass and Manaskhand road projects.