All weather Tanakpur-Pithoragarh road turning into nightmare for commuters
All weather Tanakpur-Pithoragarh road turning into nightmare for commuters
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, July 12
The much touted all weather road between Tanakpur to Pithoragarh closed frequently due to landslides during the first spell of monsoon rains in the first week of July.
“The road was converted into an all weather road by spending over Rs1100 crore under a special scheme with an aim to make it function smoothly all over the year be it rain or snow or frost ridden weather,” said an engineer with National Highway authority at Lohaghat.
“We have done a survey of recently occured landslides on the road after first phase of monsoon and found that on the 46 km long portion from Champawat to Ghat, over 22 places witnessed landslides while 6 new landslides zone have emerged as new sensitive places,” said Ganesh Pandey, a journalist based in Champawat district headquarter.
The 150 km long highway between Tanakpur to Pithoragarh was included under ‘Chardham’ road project by Prime Minister Modi in the year 2016 with other roads of ‘Chardham’ route in Garhwal and was reconstructed as all weather road in the year 2022.
Despite it’s been renamed as all weather road, the lifeline road of Champawat and Pithoragarh districts is in bad shape and the rate of landslides from hills have increased compared to pre all weather situation,” said Bhagwan Singh Rawat, a social worker and president of Pithoragarh Lok Manch.
According to the engineers of NH division, four companies have been allocated work of treatment of landslide sensitive portions of 60 spots on the 150 km long road.” We have set target of completing the treatment work of landslides sensitive spots by next year, but it could get late due to emergence of new slides sensitive spots on the road,” said Ashutosh Kumar, an executive engineer of NH division.
The treatment work of sensitive spots being done by a company between Lohaghat and Ghat has also been washed away by recent landslides.
“The all weather road could become more risky for travel in the coming months of monsoon, causing inconvenience to locals in both districts of Pithoragarh and Champawat untill precautions are taken by administration,” cautioned Bhagwan Rawat.
The NH engineers have said that besides continuing the treatment work at 60 places on the road, they will also prepare survey of recently developed sensitive spots and seek funds to treat these as well.”It could get two years time for full treatment of these spots to make all weather road safe for journey all the year,” said Ashutosh Kumar, the NH engineer.
