Land selected for building pre-fabricated huts for Joshimath victims: Chamoli DM

"The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) is building one, two and three BHK model pre-fabricated huts for the displaced families in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, on land located near the Department of Horticulture, Herbal Research and Development Institute (HDRI)," DM Himanshu Khurana said.

He has also instructed the executive body to speed up the work by inspecting the site and added that the land has also been selected in Dhak, where the construction will be started in a short time.

"For this, the Disaster Department has released Rs 2 crore 14 lakhs," he said further.

Apart from the construction of prefabricated structures, the administration has also been evaluating several options for the permanent resettlement of the families.

"One option is to give people money and freedom to settle wherever they want. The second option is to find alternative sites and make land available," he said.

On Monday, Secretary Disaster Management, Ranjit Kumar Sinha while addressing a media briefing said, an amount of Rs 3.45 crore has been distributed to 261 affected families in Joshimath as interim relief.

Secretary Disaster Management also informed that the initial discharge of water in Joshimath which was 540 LPM on January 6, 2023, has currently reduced to 180 LPM.

In the temporarily identified relief camps, Joshimath has a total of 656 rooms with a capacity of 2,940 people and Pipalkoti has 491 rooms with a capacity of 2,205 people.

According to the administration, till January 22 cracks were noticed in 863 buildings. The DM had informed that 1 area/ward has been declared unsafe in Gandhinagar, 2 in Singhdhar, 5 in Manoharbagh, and 7 in Sunil. 181 buildings are located in unsafe areas. A total of 278 families have been temporarily displaced in view of security. The number of displaced family members is 933. (ANI)