Damaged Hotel Being Demolished In Uttarakhand’s Sinking Town Today

Joshimath:

In the wake of the land subsidence crisis in the Joshimath area of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli, the dismantling of Hotel Malari Inn is underway on Sunday, as per official sources.

Several workers were deployed to dismantle the Inn. The road near hotel Malari Inn was blocked and police and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) officials were also deployed for the smooth functioning of the dismantling process.

Earlier, the CBRI chief scientist DP Kanungo said that prior training has been given to the people and the demolition work will be done as quickly as possible.

“We will do the work of dismantling the hotel as soon as possible. We have properly trained people and are using mechanical dismantling techniques here,” Kanungo told ANI.

Prior to the preparation of the demolition of the Inn on Thursday, the road near hotel Malari Inn was blocked and police and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) officials were deployed.

Kanungo also denied the usage of any heavy vibrating machine for the dismantling procedure as they are planning to “save the land”.

“Each thing will be taken apart. We will not be using any type of heavy vibrating machine here. We have to save the land. We will try to ensure that there is minimum or no vibration inside the ground,” Kanungo added.

Earlier on Wednesday, after receiving the information of the hotel’s dismantling, the owner sat in protest with his family demanding compensation.

“There’s such pressure from the adjacent hotel building that my hotel is about to collapse. I am helpless, I can’t say anything. Can anyone be happy if their hotel is being demolished?” Thakur Singh Rana, owner of Hotel Malari Inn told ANI.

He also said that till now there have been no talks about compensation with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, adding, “I have no idea about compensation.”

The officials also halted the Ropeway service connecting Chamoli’s Joshimath to Auli in Uttarakhand on Saturday.