Centre approves Rs 1,658 crore recovery, reconstruction plan for Joshimath

PTI

Dehradun, November 30

The Centre on Thursday approved a Rs 1,658.17 crore recovery and reconstruction plan for Joshimath in Uttarakhand which was affected by landslide and ground subsidence earlier this year.

The decision was taken by a high level committee, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, according to an official statement.

The committee approved the Recovery and Reconstruction (R&R) plan of Rs 1,658.17 crore for Joshimath, the statement said.

Under this plan, Rs 1,079.96 crore of central assistance will be provided from the recovery and reconstruction window of the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

The Uttarakhand government will provide Rs 126.41 crore from its State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) towards relief assistance and Rs 451.80 crore from its state budget, including land acquisition cost for resettlement of Rs 91.82 crore.

Joshimath was hit by landslide and ground subsidence and the central government has extended all necessary technical and logistical support to the state, the statement said.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all technical agencies under the guidance of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) were put into action and they helped the state government in preparing the recovery plan for Joshimath expeditiously, it said.

The recovery plan for Joshimath would be implemented in three years, following the best practices, Build Back Better (BBB) principles, and sustainability initiatives. Thereafter, Joshimath will emerge as an excellent example of ecological sustainability, the statement said.

In January this year, cracks and fissures had appeared on houses and on the ground in Joshimath, which prompted the authorities to evacuate a large number of people especially those living in the worst-hit Sunil, Singdhar and Marwari areas of the town to temporary relief centres.

Scientific and technical institutions studying land subsidence in Joshimath in a report made public in September attributed the crisis to the hill town's location on a slope over morainic deposits or loose sediments, population pressure, construction of multi-storey buildings and the absence of a system for proper disposal of water coming from the upper reaches.

The institutions which studied the problem from different angles included the Central Building Research Institute, Central Ground Water Board, Geological Survey of India, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, National Institute of Hydrology, National Geophysical Research Institute and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

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