500 brave snow, fog to rebuild Kedar

Dehradun: Braving heavy snowfall and inclement weather conditions, more than 500 workers are engaged in rebuilding Kedarnath town devasted by last year’s mid-June flash floods, chief minister Harish Rawat said here on Sunday. These men, led by an 85-member Special Task Force (STF) headed by Uttarkashi-based Nehru Mountaineering Institute (NIM) Ajay Kotiyal, have been working continuously for the past eight months, he added.
“The unfavorable conditions under which these workers have been doing their job needs to be appreciated,” Rawat told reporters here at his residence after his trip to Kedarnath to survey reconstruction work was cancelled due to inclement weather.
The CM said more construction workers would be pressed into service to speed up the work after the weather improves and snow sheets are cleared within four or five days.
“If it does not snow again, we will be able to clear the snow that has virtually paralyzed the normal life forcing residents to keep indoors due to sub zero degree temperature in the region,” said a member of the STF at Kedarnath.
Rawat announced that two snow-blowers and three bulldozers were transported to Kedarnath on Sunday. These snow-blowers and bulldozers would be used to clear three feet to four feet of snow sheets blanketing the entire Kedarpuri and its surrounding areas. However, this equipment was not transported by IAF’s AK-26 helicopter. This aircraft is yet fly to Kedarnath and land at the newly-built helipad.
The CM told TOI that STF personnel has already demolished eight deluge-hit buildings in Kedarpuri while 35 other buildings were yet to be pulled down. He said he would fly to the region to review the construction work as soon the weather improved.
Meanwhile, NIM director Ajay Kotiyal said it was challenge for his team to pull down all these calamity-struck buildings as the demolition had be scientifically conducted keeping in view the guidelines set by the Geological Survey of India about four months ago.
A 20-member GSI team of experts had issued guidelines on re-building and re-location work at Kedarpuri weeks after they conducted an on-the-spot survey of the region. “Being an ecologically sensitive area, maximum care will have to be taken while dismantling these buildings as it may cause major landslips during the process,” said an expert at NIM.
STF members said nine modular bridges would have to be installed at different places apart from three swinging bridges at Kedarnath and nearby areas as part of the rebuilding process in the region.