Lagatar 24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 14: The government of Uttarakhand will look into whether soil subsidence caused by NTPC’s underground tunnel development also resulted in fractures appearing in an already ‘sinking’ Joshimath.
The Joshimath landslides’ root cause will be looked upon by eight institutes.
After landslides, cracks formed everywhere, including on homes, hotels, and military structures. The town is sinking every hour, and one of the likely causes of this could be the extensive building in and surrounding the unstable soil.
According to the environmentalists and geologists that tunnelling associated with the National Thermal Power Corporation’s 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath town is the reason for land subsidence in the region.
Centre disproves the allegations on Saturday morning by saying that the erosion caused by natural drainage, occasional heavy rainfall, periodic seismic activities and increased construction activities are the main causes of subsidence.
Eight institutes from Uttarakhand will study and analyse the reasons behind the landslides in the temple town of Joshimath located in the Chamoli district of the hill state.
Over the past few days, the Cracks appeared everywhere, including on houses, hotels, and defence buildings after landslides. The town is sinking every hour as over 720 buildings have been identified that developed cracks and thousands have already been transferred.
A senior official in the power ministry said that “It is correct that we have drafted a letter, but not sent yet, so we are sharing it first with the home ministry, and then will share it with the Uttarakhand government.”
The letter contained “The land subsidence in Joshimath is a very old issue. the construction of the tunnel in rock mass at a depth of around 1 km caused no collision on the surface ground, counting on the environment. No gesture of sinking around the tunnel alignment at the flooring can be seen.”
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The reason claimed by the local residents sinking of Joshimath is the 12-kilometre-long tunnel connected to the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project of the NTPC.
After disproving the allegations, the senior environment ministry claims said “the Joshimath crisis has no links with the NTPC hydropower project.” so the Uttarakhand government and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami have decided to discover the reasons behind the Joshimath landslides.
