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Around 36 hours after a 70-metre stretch of the Badrinath highway was washed away due to heavy rainfall on Monday evening, leaving around 1,000 persons, mostly pilgrims to Badrinath, stranded at several locations, an alternate link road through Pokhri was opened with difficulty, restoring traffic flow to the Char Dham shrine.
An authority in the know said, “The Karnaprayag-Pokhri-Rudraprayag link route was opened on Tuesday afternoon.
The vehicles returning from Badrinath have been given priority, as it’s a narrow route and cannot accommodate too much traffic. Only a few vehicles have left from Rudraprayag for Badrinath on Tuesday.” “The main highway connecting Badrinath to the rest of the state is still blocked due to a landslide at Kameda near Gauchar.
The alternate link route through Pokhri was also obstructed due to continuously falling boulders since Monday evening,” said district disaster management officer, Rudraprayag, NK Rajwar.
The stretch of the Badrinath highway that has been damaged due to a landslide triggered by heavy rain could take three to four days to be restored. Meanwhile, the regional meteorological centre has issued an orange alert of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Nainital, Champawat, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts of the state on Wednesday.
“Isolated places in the remaining districts are likely to witness intense showers, thunderstorms and lightning during the next 24 hours,” said Bikram Singh, director of the regional meteorological centre.
On Wednesday, the red sandstone boundary walls of the Taj Mahal were surrounded by brown, muddy water, even as a flock of tourists thronged the historical monument left untouched by the river. Water from the overflowing Yamuna, however, flooded some low-lying houses near the monument, prompting officials to move residents to safer places.
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