Finance Ministry allots Rs 2,000 cr extra budgetary grant for Chardham

New Delhi: The Centre's ambitious Chardham project to provide all-weather connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri in Uttarakhand got a shot in the arm with the Finance Ministry sanctioning an extra budgetary support of Rs 2,070 crore for the project.

The project aims at connecting the four religious places at a cost of Rs 11,700 crore.

"The Finance Ministry has approved an extra budgetary support of Rs 2,070 crore for the Chardham project under which work is in progress to provide all-weather connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri," an official told PTI.

The allocation is in addition to Rs 55,000 crore budgetary provision for the highways sector for 2016-17.

The National Highway Connectivity Improvement Programme for Chardham includes development of all-weather roads for which seven stretches of 889 km are under DPR (detailed project report).

To enhance the safety of road users, provisions like widening of narrow and geometrically deficient national highways to two-lane carriageway, protection of landslide hazard zones, construction of bypasses, long bridges, tunnels and elevated corridors are being made, the official said.

Presenting the Budget for 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said infrastructure is one of the strong pillars of the economy.

Besides Chardham, the ministry is developing roads to provide connectivity to Buddhist Circuit which covers Vaishali, Patna, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Kahalgaon and Vikramshila in Bihar.

The extended circuit includes Sarnath, Kushinagar, Kapilvastu, Sankisa and Piparvah in Uttar Pradesh.

Also, the Centre is developing Ram-Van-Gaman and Ram-Janaki Marg in Uttar Pradesh, under which improved connectivity is provided in 262 km and 218 km routes, respectively.