Char Dham Highway Development Project                                                                                                                                                       

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Context: The Supreme Court urged its former Justice AK Sikri to take over as the Chairman of the high-powered committee constituted by it to “consider the cumulative and independent impact of the Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana (Char Dham Highway Development Project) on the entire Himalayan valley”as Ravi Chopra, current Chairman of the committee, had opted to quit.

Char Dham

• The Char Dham is a set of four pilgrimage sites in India. The four Dhams are Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram.
• The Char Dham as defined by Adi Shankaracharya consists of four Hindu pilgrimage sites.
• Another small circuit in Uttarakhand of four pilgrimage sites-Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath is referred to as Chota Char Dham.

Char Dham National Highway Project

• It is an under construction two-lane express National Highway with a minimum width of 10 metres in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
• It will complement the under construction Char Dham Railway by connecting the four holy places in Uttarakhand states namely Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
• The project includes 900 km national highways which will connect whole of Uttarakhand state
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) is also the key coordinator of the Chardham project. Prior to this, the government had sanctioned a road width of 10-12 metres.
• The MoRTH has allowed the 700 km-road projects to continue with the old 10-metre width and only in the remaining 200 km roads would the new narrow width apply.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/sc-appoints-ex-judge-sikri-char-dham-project-panel-head-7815765/