Wednesday, 28 August 2024 | PNS | JYOTIRMATH
The Badrinath- Rishikesh National Highway which remained shut for five days after massive landslides at Partha Deep near Nandprayag has been reopened for the movement of vehicles on Tuesday. Due to the closure of the highway, the pilgrims heading to Badrinath and Hemkund as well as people going to the district headquarters Gopeshwar from Nandprayag were facing difficulties.
To ease the transportation problem, small vehicles were being allowed to move through Nandprayag- Saikot motorway, but as this motorway is narrow, long traffic logjams were occurring daily.
Notably, the NH has still not been permanently opened. If it rains again at Nandprayag with fresh landslides it is at risk of being closed again.
Queried on why the opening of the blocked highway took as many as five days, a senior district administration officer said that the operation proved time-consuming because of the safety factor. “As landslides continued unabated, we took special caution to keep the personnel engaged in the road-opening operation away from any risk. Hence, it took five days,” he added.
