The Uttarakhand government has started the work on building a road to the ancestral village of the late General Bipin Rawat, the country's first Chief of Defence Staff. The state government has sanctioned Rs 22 lakh to extend up to Sain village the nearest motorable road, Public Works Department Assistant Engineer Satya Prakash Rathore was quoted as saying in a PTI report. The road should be in place in three months from now, the official said.
There has been no road connectivity to Gen Rawat's Sain village until now. The road up to Birmoli Khal, which is a few kilometers away, will now be extended up to Sain by the PWD, which is executing the project.
"The road cutting work has begun already and the village will have road connectivity in three months," Rathore was quoted as saying in the PTI report.
Gen Rawat and his wife Madhulika had last visited Sain on April 29, 2018. He had told his uncle Bharat Singh Rawat then that he had requested the Uttarakhand government to provide direct road connectivity to the village, according to the report.
Acting on Gen Rawat's letter, the state government gave its consent to build the Birmoli-Sain-Madanpur-Dada Mandi road, which will now connect the Sain village.
CDS Rawat and his wife Madhulika died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu last year, after which the demand for urgently starting the work on the road project gained momentum.
Rathore said the road cutting work up to 10 km — from Dadamandi to Sain — is complete, while preparation is on to start work on the second phase work of the project.
CDS Rawat was going to Wellington in the Nilgiri Hills in an Mi-17 V5 Air Force helicopter, which crashed shortly after taking off from the IAF base in Sulur, Coimbatore on December 8, 2021.