A massive road rehabilitation programmetaken up by the BRO in flood affected areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh has gained further momentum.BRO has pressed in to service more than 95 excavators and Bull dozers and many more are on the way. About 4000 BRO personnel and laborers are working day and night.Shri K KRazdan Chief Engineer, Project Shivalik which is located at Rishikesh, is supervising the work. He has surveyed the whole damaged areas and more resources are being pumped in priority area on Rudraprayaga– Gaurikund axis and Govindgaht–Badrinath axis. A wooden foot bridge and 300 m foot tract across hard rock has been made. 300 Pilgrims and 2000 Mules have been rescued   fromGaurikund. On Joshimath - Badrinath axis the construction of a foot track is under progress and a ready made foot Bridge is being launched across river Alaknanda.It is expected that after completion of these, the stranded passengers from Badrinath side may also be rescued by land route. The road wise status is as under:

·         Road Rishikesh-Dharasu- Uttarkashi - Gangotri :- Road up to Uttarkashi is open for all  traffic. Beyond Uttarkashi there are major breaches in roads at many locations. Road clearance work has also been  started from Gangotri side and  road has been  opened up to Harshil.Efforts are on to open the road between Uttarkashi and Harshil which has suffered major damages.

·         Road Rishikesh-Joshimath-Badrinath-Mana:- Road has been opened upto km 496 (Govindghat). There are major breaches beyond Govindghat. 50 m bridge at Lambagarh has been washed away. Efforts are on to link the road from bothGovindghat and Badrinath sides.  Efforts are on to make a foot track bypassing breach area and a foot bridge which was airlifted will be launched across river Alaknanda  for speedy evacuation of stranded passengers from Badrinath and HemkundSaheb area.

·         Rudraprayag-Gaurikund Road:- This road is the worst affected road in Uttarakhand. Presently the road from Rudraprayaga side has been cleared upto 15 km. Now efforts are on to clear the road between km 15 to 35. The road from Km 35 to Km 70 is generally clear. 6 Attack points have been opened on this road to clear the road. Songanga Br at km 70.30 has been washed away. The bridge at 35.60 (Rawanganga) has also been damaged which has since been repaired.  BRO has also helped in clearing many lateral roads on this axis to help people to evacuate through alternate routes. Lately a wooden foot bridge across near the damaged bridge near Songanga River and 300 m foot tract across hard rock has been made. 300 Pilgrims and 2000 Mules have been rescued  fromGaurikund. Now the people can come freely from Gaurikund across Songanga. Shri Chandrasekhar, Commander 36 Border Road Task Force is supervising the work.

·         Road Tanakpur – Pithoraghat  –Tawaghat – Ghatiabagarh :- BRO has pressed in to service about 30 Bulldozers & excavators on this route. The road uptoPithoragarh is through for all traffic. Beyond Pithoragarh, the road is through up to Km 80. Beyond Km 80 uptoTawaghat, about 4 km road has been breached at more than 30 locations.Road has been opened between km 80 to 96 for light vehicles. Major breaches are at Km 82.50, 84.30, 97.42, 99.35, 101.80, 106 and 107. Two bridges are also damaged before Tawaghat at km 100.57 and km 102.09. A 150 Ft bridge at Tawaghathas also been washed away. A massive operation of road clearance has been taken up on this axis. As a first step efforts foot track connectivity has been established  for essential communication at breached portions of roads.

·         Road Jauljibi – Munsiyari :- This axis is closed due to major breaches at about 10 locations. Total road breached is more than 3.5 Km. However efforts are on to clear the road with the help of 8 Bulldozers & excavators. About 10 km road has been cleared, both  fromJauljibi and Munsiari side. Foot track connectivity has been established in the most of the road portion for transportation of ration and general public.

·         Other roads in Uttarakhand :- Many other lateral roads with BRO in Uttarakhand have also suffered extensive damages and are closed. Focus will shift to these roads once the major axis are open.

·         Roads in Himachal Pradesh:-The roads Wangthu-Pooh and Pooh-Kaurik on charge of BRO have also suffered extensive damage and are closed. The roads have been partly cleared and efforts are on to completely clear the road. A massive road Clarence work is going on. The roads have suffered major damages affecting about 4 km of road at about 80 places. Road axis Sumdo-Kaza-Grampu has since been opened and further improvements are in progress.

N. Ao/HH