Kedarnath 'rescue' machinery left to rust for four months



Brought amid high-decibel publicity for restoration work in flash-flood-hit Kedarnath, heavy earth moving machines of Engineering Projects India Ltd (EPIL) have sat idle for over four months at the Gauchar airport in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district.



The machines - three hydraulic excavators and two hydraulic rock breakers - arrived from Delhi on September 8 last year for restoration work, besides extricating bodies from the debris in Kedarnath.



Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had claimed these machines would be dismantled and taken in parts by Mi-26 helicopters to be assembled again in Kedarnath for the operation there.



Most of the machines, which were flown in from Delhi in parts, have not even been assembled

No progress: Another machine waits to be assembled

Besides highlighting the lack of understanding between the Centre and the Uttarakhand government, the sight of these idle machines raises the question of whether the equipment was brought just to divert public attention from the Vijay Bahuguna government's failure to carry out post-disaster relief works.



On July 20 last year, Bahuguna had announced that the EPIL, a government of India enterprise, was given the responsibility of redeveloping and removing debris from Kedarnath. But now the Congress government says the EPIL is not involved in the Kedarnath redevelopment project, and will perform assignments as advised by the Centre.



"EPIL is not in our Kedarnath redevelopment project. They will do works assigned by the Centre there," Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar told Mail Today.

An RTI reply from the EPIL, dated November 19 last year, presents a sorry picture of the company's deployment by the state government in flood-ravaged Kedarnath.



"No work order has been awarded in favour of Engineering Projects (India) Ltd with regard to reconstruction work in Kedarnath by the Uttarakhand government," the RTI reply says.

Controversy surrounds on the number of machines which reached Uttarakhand. EPIL's Chairman-cum-Managing Director SPS Bakshi had said: "Fifteen chain-driven Pocline excavators, 15 trucks/dumpers, rock breakers and other machinery required had been moved by road from Delhi."

