Char Dham National Highway, is an under construction two-lane (in each direction) 889 km long National Highway with a minimum width of 10 metres in the Indian state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

under Char Dham Pariyojana. The under construction highway will complement the under-construction

Char Dham Railway The Char Dham Railway, the Indian Railways's under construction twin railway lines under Char Dham Pariyojana project by connecting the holiest places of Hinduism called Chota Char Dham, from the existing Doiwala railway station near Dehradun t ...

by connecting the four holy places in

states namely

Badrinath Badrinath is a town and nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is a Hindu holy place, and is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage. It is also part of India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage c ...

Kedarnath Kedarnath is a town and Nagar Panchayat in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India, known primarily for the Kedarnath Temple. It is approximately 86.5 kilometres from Rudraprayag, the district headquarters. Kedarnath is the most remote ...

Gangotri Gangotri is a town and a ''Nagar Panchayat'' (municipality) in Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is 99 km from Uttarkashi, the main district headquarter. It is a Hindu pilgrim town on the banks of the river Bha ...

and

Yamunotri Yamunotri, also Jamnotri, is the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the Goddess Yamuna in Hinduism. It is situated at an altitude of in the Garhwal Himalayas and located approximately North of Uttarkashi, the headquarters of the Utta ...

. The project includes 889 km

national highways National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in Eng ...

which will connect the whole of

state. It will connect Delhi–Dehradun Expressway on its southern end to

India-China Border Roads Chinese Indian or Indian Chinese may refer to: * China–India relations China and India maintained peaceful relations for thousands of years, but their relationship has varied since the Chinese Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil ...

on its northern ends.

Development

The total cost of

₹ The Indian rupee sign ⟨₹⟩ is the currency symbol for the Indian rupee (ISO 4217: INR), the official currency of India. Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010, following its ...

12,000

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

s and the foundation stone of the project was laid by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

on 27 December 2016 at

Parade Ground A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

. The highway will be called Char Dham Mahamarg (Char Dham Highway) and the highway construction project will be called as Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana (Char Dham Highway Development Project) and is made to improve the connectivity to the

Chota Char Dham The Chota Char Dham ( 'the small four abodes/seats' or 'the small circuit of four abodes/seats') is an important modern Hindu pilgrimage circuit in Uttarakhand, in the Indian Himalayas. Located in the Garhwal region of the state of Uttarak ...

nestled in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

.Chardham highway project: PM Modi lays foundation stone in Dehradun
/ref>PM to Lay Foundation Stone of ‘Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna’
/ref>
/ref>
/ref> Road will include several long bridges and tunnels to eliminate accident and slide prone areas.

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

and

National Highways Authority of India The National Highways Authority of India or NHAI () is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1995 (Act 1988) and is responsible for management of a road network of over 50,000 km of National highways out of 1,32,499 ...

have been directed, by the Cabinet Secretary of India, to ensure that rail and road highway routes are integrated on this circuit.

Route alignment

Originating from Rishikesh, Char Dham highway network will have 5 distinct routes,Safer, smoother, shorter Char Dham Yatra, Times of India, 3-Sept-2014
/ref> From west to east and south to north: *

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in the Indian state Uttarakhand. The northern part of Rishikesh is in the Dehradun district while the southern part is in the Tehri Garhwal district. It is situated on the right bank ...

–

** Rishikesh **

Dharasu Dharasu is a town, near Uttarkashi in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand, India. Geography It is located at an elevation of 1339 m above MSL. The Dharasu Power Station is located there, on the Bhagirathi River The Bhāgīrathī (Pron: /ˌ ...

NH 94 National Highway NH 34 (NH 34) is a National Highway (India), National Highway in India. It runs from Gangotri Dham in Uttarakhand to Lakhnadon in Madhya Pradesh, passing through the States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh ...

, 144 km from

** Yamunotri, NH 94, 95 km from

. State buses go up to Hanuman Chatti (14 km from Yamunotri), taxis go all the way to Yamunotri, and lodging is available at

dharamshalas A dharamshala, also written as dharmashala, is a public resthouse or shelter in the Indian subcontinent. It also refers to Sikhism, Sikh places of worship before the introduction of Gurdwaras. Just as Caravanserai, sarai are for travellers and ...

and

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Char Dham Yatra 2019: How to reach, where to stay and its significance for devotees
financialexpress.com, April 2019. *

–

(same route as previous one till Dharasu). This will take the railway and Char Dham road highway at Gangotri close to the border area of Nelang Valley .Achilles Heel in India's Border Defence with China!
Indian Defence Review, 20 June 2017. ** Rishikesh ** Dharasu, NH 94, 144 km from Rishikesh ** Gangotri, NH 108, 124 km from Dharasu. Road transport goes up to Gangotri, but the actual source of Ganga is at

Gomukh Gomukh, also known as "Gaumukh" or "Gomukhi" (Hindi: गौमुख or गौमुखी ; Assamese and Bengali: গোমুখ or গোমুখী), is the terminus or snout of the Gangotri Glacier and the source of the Bhagirathi Rive ...

glacier which is another 18+ km trail and requires a minimum of two days. *

–

** Rishikesh **

Rudraprayag Rudraprayag is a city and a municipality in Rudraprayag district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Rudraprayag is one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River, the point of confluence of rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini. Keda ...

NH 58 This article is about the old number of Delhi-Meerut-Roorkee-Haridwar-Badrinath National Highway. National Highway 58 (NH 58) was a national highway in India before it was renumbered. It linked Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh near New Delhi with B ...

, 140 km from Rishikesh ** Gaurikund (trek 12.6 km to Kedarnath on foot, by pony or helicopter ride), NH 109, 76 km from Rudraprayag, Road transport goes up to Gaurikund. *

–

(same route are previous one till Rudraprayag). This will take the railway and Char Dham road highway at Badrinath closer to the area of Barahoti .After 24 years of work, strategic military outpost near India-China border connected with motorable road

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

, 11 Nov 2016. ** Rishikesh ** Rudraprayag, NH 58, 140 km from Rishikesh **

Joshimath Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, is a town and a municipal board in Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Located at a height of 6,150 feet (1,875 m), it is a gateway to several Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions, tre ...

Mana Mana may refer to: Religion and mythology * Mana (Oceanian cultures), the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe in Melanesian and Polynesian mythology * Mana (food), archaic name for manna, an edible substance m ...

(trek to Badrinath), NH 58, 140 km from Rudraprayag, motorable all the way to Badrinath, Tapt Kund ‘hot springs’ is just before the

Badrinath Temple Badarinath or Badarinarayana Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, located in the town of Badrinath in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India. The temple is also one of the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu for Vaishnavas, who ...

. * Pithoragagh-Lipulekh Pass Highway (PLPH), nearly 350 km long route to

Lipulekh Pass The Lipulekh Pass () is a Himalayan pass on the border between Uttarakhand, India and the Tibet region of China, near their trijunction with Nepal. Nepal has had ongoing claims to the southern side of the pass, called Kalapani territory, ...

on India-Tibet border for Kailas-

Manasarovar Lake Manasarovar also called Mapam Yumtso (; ) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is located at an elevation of , near the western trijunction be ...

yatra ''Yatra'' (, ), in Indian religion, Indian-origin religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, generally means a pilgrimage to holy places such as confluences of River#Sacred rivers, sacred rivers, Sacred mountains#India, sacred mount ...

.Uttarakhand: 6-km tunnel to be built between Bundi, Garbyang on way to India-China border
The Print, 23 May 2023. ** Budi-Garbyang tunnel, 6 km long, Rs2000 cr 2-lane tunnel planned for swifter all-weather

Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; ; ; , ) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of ...

Mansarovar Lake Manasarovar also called Mapam Yumtso (; ) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is located at an elevation of , near the western trijunction be ...

.Uttarakhand: 6-km tunnel to be built between Bundi, Garbyang on way to India-China border
The Print, 23 May 2023. ** a spur from Nabidhang runs along a glaciated river to

Om Parvat Om Parvat is a mountain located in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand, India. Om Parvat's peak elevation is above sea level. The meaning of ''Om Parvat'' Om Parvat derives its name from the Sanskrit word Om, which is composed of three sounds ...

. ** Gunji-Lampiya Dhura Pass Road (GLDPR) runs through Kuti from Gunji, via

Adi Kailash Adi Kailash ( Kumaoni: आदि कैलाश), also known as Shiva Kailash, Chota Kailash, Baba Kailash or Jonglingkong Peak, is a mountain located in the Himalayan mountain range in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, India. It is the ...

, to Lampiya Dhura Pass (Limpiyadhura Pass on India-Tibet border).

Facilities

The project will have bypasses, bridges, viaducts, pit stops, parking, helipads and helicopter emergency response services, etc. along the way.

Status updates

* Dec 2016: Prime Minister

laid the foundation stone in December 2016.Centre's 'Chardham' highway project under NGT scanner, Economic Times, 4-May-2017
/ref> * July 2023: 75% (601 km out of 825 km) of Char Dham Yatra highways complete.601 km of Char Dham Yatra highways complete.
Infra.com, 27 july 2023.

References

{{Uttarakhand

External links