NGT to hear Centre’s ‘Char dham’ highway project

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) will on Thursday continue to hear the case regarding the Char Dham project in the Gangotri belt.

In the previous hearing, the NGT summoned Uttarakhand’s environment secretary on widening of Gangotri March for Chardham Yatra.

The green tribunal’s summon came on the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Kedarnath to attend the portal opening ceremony.

Kedarnath is one of the Char Dham that witnessed wide destruction during the June 2013 floods.

The green court took a strict stand on collection of garbage and will also put its stance on cutting of trees in large numbers.

The NGT asked the Uttarakhand secretary, “Will you keep debris on the road?”

Under the Char Dham National Highway Connectivity Improvement programme sanctioned by the Centre, the 268 km-long-road is to be widened up to 12 metres.

The Chardham highway project is to provide all-weather connectivity to four pilgrimage towns of Uttarakhand came under the scanner of the NGT, which sought responses from the Centre and the state government on the debris being dumped on mountain slopes (ANI)