Two expert members of Char Dham panel call the road project a ‘Himalayan blunder’
NEW DELHI: Two expert members in the Supreme Court-appointed committee on Char Dham road project have flagged serious issues over the widening of this 900-km road to 10 metres uniformly and termed it “A Himalayan Blunder”. This “minority view” has been incorporated in the “Main Report” that the panel chairman, environmentalist Ravi Chopra has submitted to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC).
Chopra told TOI that this note was submitted by two members, Hemant Dhyani and Navin Juyal. They have raised concerns over the road transport and highways ministry’s decision to divide the entire stretch to 53 smaller projects to avoid conducting environment impact assessment (EIA) study despite the hills being contiguous. Each divided stretch is less than 100km. The MoEFCC norms make it mandatory for linear project of more than 100 km to go for EIA study.
