Uttarkashi villages remain stranded as rains wash away rural road link
Heavy monsoon rains in Uttarkashi’s Assi Ganga Valley have disconnected five remote villages from essential services after a key rural road collapsed over two weeks ago. Built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the Sangamchatti-Gajoli Naugaon road was entirely washed away, with no restoration work initiated since. Residents continue to endure treacherous conditions and navigate broken footpaths to reach the nearest accessible areas, raising serious concerns about the state of rural infrastructure in climate-sensitive Himalayan zones.
The Sangamchatti corridor served as a crucial link for remote settlements including Naugaon, Agora, Vasda Dandalka, and Bhankoli. Torrential downpours at the end of June triggered landslides and road collapses, which also severely impacted the Gangori-Sangamchatti-Agora motor road. Although officials managed to restore partial access between Gangori and Sangamchatti, the stretches beyond remain impassable. Residents are now stranded without consistent access to healthcare, food supplies, or emergency services—a grave risk in a region prone to recurring cloudbursts and unstable terrain. Locals report harrowing experiences that reveal the human cost of this disconnection. In one instance, an ailing elderly man was carried nearly 10 kilometres on a makeshift stretcher to reach the nearest motorable point.
Many residents accuse authorities of neglect, noting that similar road collapses have happened in previous years but remain unaddressed. The lack of climate-resilient infrastructure, especially in landslide-prone zones like Uttarkashi, continues to put lives and livelihoods at risk, undermining the goals of equitable rural development and disaster preparedness. Officials associated with PMGSY cite persistent afternoon rains and unstable hillsides as the main reasons for delayed reconstruction. Labourers are reportedly unwilling to take up repair work due to fears of fresh landslides. However, the absence of contingency planning and lack of community-level communication has intensified public frustration. Experts argue that there is a critical need for engineering solutions that go beyond patchwork repairs—such as geosynthetic barriers, eco-drainage systems, and slope-stabilisation techniques that can withstand intensified rainfall patterns brought on by climate change.
In the backdrop of India’s push for last-mile rural connectivity and sustainable infrastructure under national development goals, the situation in Uttarkashi exposes how fragile these efforts remain in the face of extreme weather. Unless the government strengthens its focus on climate-resilient rural roads—particularly in Himalayan states—villages like these will remain perennially vulnerable. As India grapples with escalating monsoon variability, there is a growing call to balance infrastructure delivery with safety, sustainability, and human dignity in its remotest corners.
