BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi and former Union minister Karan Singh have written to Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, asking the Supreme Court to review its 2021 order that allowed widening of roads under the Char Dham roads project to 12 meters. They said the order had triggered landslides and sinking zones in Uttarakhand.
The letter was backed by 57 signatories. These included historian Shekhar Pathak, author Ramachandra Guha, and former RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya. The group also included academicians, scientists, MPs, and activists.
The letter demanded scrapping of a 2020 circular issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which prescribed a double-lane paved shoulder design with a 10-meter tarred surface and 12-meter formation width. Joshi and Singh suggested the earlier proposal of 5.5 meters instead.
They warned that the double-lane design, especially on the Uttarkashi-Gangotri stretch, would cause “avoidable damage” in a fragile zone already hit by disasters. “If not reviewed, this judgment will lead to irreparable and immediate impact,” their letter said, pointing to the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone where a recent disaster struck.
The leaders stressed the need to balance defence requirements with ecological limits. “In view of the safety of lives and livelihood of people and all-weather movement of defence forces, it is imperative to consider the ecological sensitivity,” the letter added.
In 2021, a bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud upheld the Centre’s plan to widen three highways, Rishikesh to Mana, Rishikesh to Gangotri, and Tanakpur to Pithoragarh, calling them strategic feeder roads. It also formed an oversight committee under Justice AK Sikri to monitor the work with environmental safeguards.
The Char Dham project covers 825 km of highways. By June this year, 629 km had been completed, according to government data.
Joshi and Singh argued the 2021 ruling overturned the court’s own 2020 judgment, which favored narrower hill roads. They said the wider design has proven “hazardous to the Himalayan terrain” and worsened landslide risks.
The letter described frequent blockages on Badrinath, Gangotri, and Pithoragarh routes during monsoon, disrupting defence and civilian movement. It warned against cutting thousands of deodar trees for new bypasses and road stretches in the Bhagirathi valley.
The Indian Express earlier reported that the state forest department gave in-principle approval for a bypass in the Bhagirathi valley despite warnings from the Supreme Court’s high-powered committee. The letter estimated current season’s losses at Rs 5,000 crore, close to the scale of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster.
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