U'khand govt to seek package from Centre to repair Kedarnath trek route

Dehradun, Aug 7 (PTI) Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi on Wednesday sought an immediate assessment of the damage caused to the rain-ravaged Kedarnath trek route from all the departments concerned to demand a special economic package from the Centre for repair and reconstruction works.

The chief secretary directed the Civil Aviation department to immediately prepare an assessment of the damaged helipads in Bhimbali, Kedarnath, Sonprayag, Chimbasa and Lincholi besides asking the Disaster Management department to immediately draw an estimate of the economic package required from the Centre to address the disaster mitigation issues.

They include measures for landslide monitoring and early warning, light detection and ranging survey, geotechnical investigation of unbalanced slopes, measures for landslide prone areas, flood monitoring through remote sensing and landslide early warning, an official release here said.

Raturi also asked the PWD, Irrigation, Police, Energy Corporation, Transport and Animal Husbandry departments to send their estimates of proposed works for disaster mitigation.

Heavy rain and cloudburst on July 31 damaged the road to Kedarnath at 29 places, including Jungalchatti and Ghorapadav where large stretches were washed out.

Apart from this, the electricity and drinking water supply lines were also affected and telecommunication services were disrupted. PTI ALM AS AS