Kedarnath trekking tracks to be laid out new before Char Dham Yatra'14 in Uttarakhand

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand state Mr. Harish Rawat recently announced some good news for all locals and pilgrims planning to visit the Kedarnath shrine soon. Two important trekking tracks leading up to the famous Kedarnath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva were completely damaged in the mammoth floods that affected the state during June 2013. Therefore, the State Government has recently announced that plans have started to reconstruct two tracks – one running from Rambara to Gaurikund for a length of 10km and other running from Rambara to Kedarnath for a length of 8km. For now, the Government has decided to renovate these tracks by the second week of May, right in time for the Char Dham Yatra in 2014, when thousands of pilgrims are expected to trek all the way up to the Kedarnath temple using these routes.

A final plan detailing the length and measurements of these tracks has been planned for after having fruitful discussions with the experts at NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and GSI (Geological Survey of India). On 10th March 2014, the CM confirmed to the media that reconstruction of these tracks will startanytime soon once the weather brightens up in the state. He also stated that since these two tracks were very important for the region’s economy, they are being worked upon with great focus given to intricate details. Char Dham Yatra will be resuming by second week of June and the CM confirmed that the renovationwork is being planned in such a way to get over before this Yatra. A senior IAS officer from Uttarakhand confirmed that the roads are being constructed after careful discussions with experts from the disastermanagement committee of the state and that once there is a slight improvement in climate, work will start in full swing to target a tentative completion deadline of May second week.