Snowfall hits Kedarnath reconstruction work

Dehradun, December 15

The reconstruction work at the Kedarnath shrine has been suspended due to inclement weather and sub-zero temperature, an official said today. The Met said snowfall continued in the region and on Thursday the mercury dropped to minus 50°C.

Seventy labourers and a group of engineers have returned from the shrine, which is at an altitude of 3,553 metres above sea level, to the base camp, the official said.

Work has been going on at a feverish pace, ever since PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone few months ago. 

The area surrounding the shrine, which is part of the annual Chaar Dhaam pilgrimage, was devastated in flash floods in 2013 that also killed thousands of people. Rudraprayag District Magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said that some labourers have been shifted to Sonprayag and the remaining had been put up in Linchauli. 

Once the weather turns normal, they will resume work, he said. 

Under the reconstruction work, the shrine is being developed as ‘Kedarpuri’. Other than widening of roads and beautification of the area, a safety retaining wall is also being constructed behind the temple.

Workers hired by the Public Works Department (PWD) and staff of the Nehru Mountaineering Institute are doing the work here. 

Officials, however, said that barring very difficult weather situations, the reconstruction work would go on during the winter months so that everything was ready by 2018 when the Chaar Dhaam Yatra would commence. — IANS