Development in the Himalayan Region
Char Dham Road Project:
- This is a huge endeavour to enlarge about 900 kilometres of inclines.
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will carry out the project.
Goal:
To enable communication to the four main shrines in all weather conditions.
- Yamunotri
- Gangotri
- Kedarnath
- It will boost pilgrimage travel from the plains of India.
- There will be concomitant benefits to the local economy.
Problems:
- Massive landslides and floods in the vulnerable Himalayan range have been caused by widespread development and its intricate relationship with climate change.
Problems:
- The procedures used to obtain environmental clearances, which compromised safety measures.
- a novel style of architecture designed to build and oversee infrastructure developments in the area, should such be required at all.
- The Char Dham Yatra is said to have been built in response to the 2013 Uttarakhand flash floods.
- The Himalayas are the youngest mountain range and are continually developing.
- Geological and geotechnical studies: This project carries a high risk of fatalities.
- There are frictional shear rocks in this location, and the area is quite earthquake-sensitive.
- It is risky to build in this area.
- Even the most fundamental mountain construction rules have been abandoned as a result of the region’s construction and projects.
- People don’t really take the Environment Impact Assessment seriously.
- As an illustration, consider the 900-kilometer-long Char Dham Project, which only needs one EIA.
- To ensure that the EIA is ready for a smaller area, the project was divided into 53 components.
- Additionally, the impact would be smaller than that of a vast ecosystem spanning 900 km.
- Regarding the question of carrying capacity in the Himalayas, the Supreme Court of India has previously taken up the case.
- The supreme court ought to encourage discussion about it.
- The carrying capacity of an environment extends beyond its ability to support a given population.
- It must also consider the IHR’s overall carrying capacity from an infrastructure standpoint.
- The new geographies, regrettably, are the driving force behind the IHR’s current revolutionary phase.
- Beyond the boundaries and spaces of the Himalayan construction typologies, there are historical and spatial shifts.
- It is not possible to sustain them through simple integration with the others.
- This would despoil the area.
Safety procedures:
- the Atal tunnel’s construction in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu, Lahaul, and Spiti districts.
- Not a single casualty has been reported during the construction process because to the executing company’s meticulous attention to safety protocols.
- Workers were not permitted to enter the tunnel until all procedures had been completed and verified.
- Efficient international protocols and monitoring procedures for tunnelling had to be implemented.
- It is necessary to create a new legislative framework that permits public monitoring of these projects and guarantees the involvement of geological specialists in all decision-making.
- These monitoring systems with stringent criteria should include the local communities who have lived in the highlands.
- It is important to include community-driven organisations and civil society organisations in the monitoring process.
- The NHAI needs to understand that they are not building roads on office drawing boards, but rather on dirt and mountains.
- A better building technique is used by the BRO and even the PMGSY, which allows for a stabilisation phase.
- The emphasis on attaining targets at the expense of stability and safety requirements is exacerbating the likelihood of disasters.
