Chota Char Dham – 4 small abodes hindu pilgrimage in the Himalayan Mountains
India’s highways ministry led by PM Modi’s BJP central government is planning to connect the Hindu 4 small abodes pilgrimage (Chota Char Dham Yatra) in the Himalayas with 889 km of disaster-proof 2-lane roads. The Chota Char Dham Yatra is made of the 4 popular and sacred Hindu temples called Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Millions of hindus participate in the holy & scenic Chota Char Dham pilgrimage annually. However, due to the temples being located in elevated & mountainous areas there have been many fatal disasters where the lack of road infrastructure and connectivity has made it difficult for authorities to send relief.
Government officials said detailed project reports were in the final stages and the highway ministry was likely to invite bids for road stretches in October/November of 2015.
The Chota Char Dham Yatra takes place during April-November and is among the most popular Hindu pilgrimages. Over 3 million tourists & pilgrims officially registered for the pilgrimage (yatra) in 2012, but the number has declined since floods and landslides killed about 5,000 hindu pilgrims in 2013, which was mostly blamed on the inaction of the ruling Congress-UPA government. In 2015 only 750,000 pilgrims have registered out of fear that a lack of proper infrastructure highly increases the risk of danger.
The Chota Char Dham, translated in English as ‘the small 4 abodes/seats’, is an auspicious Hindu pilgrimage circuit in the Indian Himalayas. The circuit consists of 4 sites — Yamunotri(the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the goddess Yamuna), Gangotri(the source of the Ganges (River Ganga) and seat of the goddess Ganga), Kedarnath(where a form of the Hindu god Shiva is venerated as one of the twelve jyotirling), and Badrinath(the seat of the Hindu god Vishnu in his aspect of Badrinarayan). Badrinath is also one of the four destinations (with each destination being in different corners of the country) of the longer Char Dham from which the Chota Char Dham likely draws its name.
source – Indian Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways
The long stretch of road network will be built in seven packages over 3 years. The highway ministry intends to award each engineering, procurement and construction contractor projects not more than Rs 1,000 crore.
Project reports for the new road network have been prepared with buy-ins from the Geological Survey of India, Survey of India, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Central Water Commission, and Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre.
The BJP-led ministries of aviation, tourism, home affairs, revenue, forests and irrigation also contributed, a highways ministry official said.
Suggestions from the Border Roads Organisation, the Uttarakhand public works department and local villagers were considered for realignments and bypasses.
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