Joshimath crisis: Cracks appear on Badrinath national highway

Joshimath: Few new cracks appeared on the Badrinath national highway in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, the only road that leads to Badrinath, news agency ANI reported on Monday. 

“CBRI team, which was sent for an inspection of cracks that have appeared on the Badrinath highway, has stated that the cracks were caused by the local settlement of the road,” Himanshu Khurana, DM, Chamoli, told ANI.

Joshimath is situated in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district at a height of 6,000 feet. This region falls under the high-risk seismic ‘Zone-V’. Joshimath has been in the limelight since the cracks appeared in hundreds of houses in the area. As a result, authorities shifted people to safer places and formed a team of scientists to find out the cause of the cracks. Joshimath is situated on the route to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib.

According to the latest reports, the crisis has deepened, with the number of buildings with cracks has gone up to 849, about 100 more than reported before. Asia's largest, the 4.5 km ropeway, Joshimath-Auli ropeway, was also shut after wide cracks appeared nearby, and land subsidence incidents were reported from the town.

Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (JBSS) earlier urged the Centre to take charge of relief and rehabilitation work in Joshimath as, according to them, the Uttarakhand government was adopting a "lackadaisical" approach towards the whole matter. They also requested the centre to scrap the NTPC's under-construction Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project.

(With Agency Inputs)

Also Read: Joshimath crisis deepens: Number of buildings with cracks rises to 849