Launching the project, Modi had promised to reverse an old saying of the mountains: “Pahad Ka Pani and Pahad Ki Jawani (the water and youth of hills) don’t stay in the hills.” Local youth will get employment through the building of the highway, he had said.

However, villagers say jobs have not come their way. “During the last assembly elections (early 2017) also, every leader told us that the Char Dham project will provide employment,” said Harish, 30, a resident of Srinagar town in Garhwal.

Villages along the proposed highway said that the constructing company hires outsiders. “We have lost all employment as our fields have been totally ruined. Initially, more than 35 people were hired from this area by the contractors for building roads, but the company doesn’t recruit locals any more,” Ramola says.

Madan Kaushik, a cabinet minister in the Uttarakhand government, denied the charge. “It’s a very big project. We are trying to accommodate maximum workforce from Uttarakhand, but if there is no manpower available in a particular place then naturally it will come from outside,” Kaushik told indiaclimatedialogue.net.