600 Families To Be Evacuated From 'Sinking' Joshimath, Choppers On Standby

On Saturday, the chief minister will travel to Joshimath, where he will meet with those who have been impacted and officials.

Dehradun: On Friday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ordered the immediate evacuation of 600 families who were residing in homes with significant fractures and were in danger in the sinking town of Joshimath.

"Keeping people alive is our first priority. Approximately 600 residents residing in Joshimath's threatened homes have been advised to relocate; "After examining the situation in the sinking town with officials through video conference, Dhami told reporters here.

He added, "We are also putting up both short-term and long-term measures to deal with the situation in Joshimath.

On Saturday, the chief minister will travel to Joshimath, where he will meet with those who have been impacted and officials.

Sushil Kumar, the commissioner for Garhwal, and Ranjit Kumar Sinha, the secretary for disaster management, together with a group of specialists, are camped out on the ground to keep an eye on the situation, according to Dhami.

He advised the administration to move swiftly with regards to relocating individuals from the impacted areas.

He said plans should be prepared for people to be airlifted and that medical treatment facilities should be accessible on the ground.Both a short-term and long-term action plan should be created, and work on both should begin right away, according to Dhami.

To speed up work on the treatment of danger zones, sewers, and drainage, procedures need to be simplified.We value our citizens' lives above all else, he declared.

Sectors and zones should be established in Joshimath, and appropriate action should be performed in each.The town should also have a disaster control centre, according to the chief minister.

Alternative venues in Pipalkoti, Gauchar, and other places should be found, he said, in order to provide impacted people with long-term rehabilitation.

The district magistrate should be in touch with citizens and should also identify any areas that could be dangerous.

"People need to be moved to safe areas." Satellite photos can be helpful in this area as well. To succeed in the exercise, "all departments should act with a team spirit," he stated.

He continued by saying that sufficient personnel from the State Disaster Response Force and the National Disaster Response Force should be deployed to help the affected people, and that if necessary, helicopter services should be made available.

Because Joshimath is a town with significant religious and cultural significance, care should be exercised to prevent harm to people's livelihoods, he advised.

On Friday night in Joshimath's Singdhar ward, a temple collapsed, further scaring locals who already live in constant fear of a catastrophic event.

Fortunately, no one was inside the temple when it collapsed since, according to locals, it had been abandoned over the previous 15 days after experiencing significant cracking.

Numerous houses have developed large fractures, and many have experienced subsidence.

According to officials, up to 50 families have been relocated to safer areas. In addition to them, 60 families who were residing in a community designed for Vishnu Prayag Jal Vidyut Pariyojana workers were relocated, according to the colony's director, Pankaj Chauhan. Marwari, where an aquifer burst three days ago and water is constantly pouring out, is the area most severely hit.

On the request of the locals, all construction operations associated with megaprojects including the Chardham all-weather road and the NTPC's Hydel project have been halted until further orders. The largest ropeway in Asia, the Auli ropeway, has been shut down because to a significant crack that has appeared beneath it, according to Rishi Prasad Sati, a former head of the local municipality.

People staged a dharna at the Joshimath tehsil office on Friday as part of ongoing protests calling for rehabilitation.

Even the BJP despatched a team to Joshimath to evaluate the situation since it appeared that the subsidence was getting worse.