Uttarakhand government will reconstruct five kilometres new track from Rambada to Garunchatti enroute Kedarnath pilgrimage devasted in 2013 rain disaster. The new road on the same side of the river Mandakini is being built with an elevation of 200 metres above Pre-2013 track as it will help pilgrims not to take the other side of the river which is more disaster prone and a glacier zone.
Uttarakhand PWD has started cutting the new road for Kedarnath pilgrimage in order to keep the pilgrimage track one way like prior to 2013 flood devastations. As per PWD officials the new 5.35 kilometres long and 1.8 metre wide road will have alignment same as old route between Rambada and Garud Chatti will make the pilgrimage easy and simple for it recieves constant sunlight as against present route that hardly gets solar heat. Present tracek between Rambada and Kedarnath Temple starts from other side of the river which a glacier zone and remains perennially wet and damp.
“Road cutting work to reconnect resume old Rambara-Garunchatti track was staryed in June this year. We hope to complete work by December. This will be followed by road construction with an elevation of nearly 200 meters above the old road. Garudchatti thay remained ignored after 2013 disaster will be back live in the next cpuple of years. The new route will also provide easy approach to Kedarnath Temple and offload the rising anthropogenic pressure on the current path” informed V Jhinkawan PWD executive engineer looking after the road work.
Nearly seven kilometre track from Rambada to Kedarnath was completely shattered in 2013 rain disaster that killed thousands of people and rendred as many numbers homeless. Post disaster Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) and engineering experts from IITs built a new nime kilometres route from Rambada to Kedarnath on the right side (while going towards shrine area) of the river Mandakini. For the last ten years, the pilgrims are taking this path after crossing over the river via a bridge at Rambara.
According to Jhinkwan and other officials pressure on new route is constantly increasing due to the rising number of pilgrims every year. The trek has also suffered damages due to the disaster that on 31 July that left more than 15000 pilgrims stranded.
Kedarnath pilgrimage will be made one-way with the new road as pilgrims will have access to the shrine directly from Garudchatti instead of moving on the glacier zone from Rambara. The glacier zone trek will be used for return journey. return through the old route.
Officials said reconstructing of new road on with same alignment was under consideration since 2015. This resulted from a three-phased land survey and feasibility considerations by the state government and its team of experts. Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change granted permission to transfer 0.983 hectares of state forest land for reviving Garunchatti route to Kedarnath. Later this year in March-April PWD deposited compensation amount to the forest department for the land acquired by it and road cutting work above Pre-2013 road was started in June this year, informed Jhinkwan.