The demolition of Hotel Malari Inn in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath began on Thursday with the national disaster response force (NDRF) and state disaster response fund (SDRF) leading the drive.
The hotel is one of the two badly damaged hotels and the demolition was carried out amid heavy police deployment.
The authorities had been struggling to begin its demolition due to continuous protests by its owner and local residents over the “adequate” compensation.
The development comes hours after chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s two-day visit to the town.
Also Read:Uttarakhand CM says Joshimath crisis ‘natural disaster’; People seek solution
According to authorities, there was an urgent need to demolish the two hotels since they are a threat to lives and other structures in its proximity.
As the authorities began to demolish the hotel, its owner Thakur Singh Rana and his family members were left teary-eyed.
According to the owner’s estimation, the hotel’s market value is between ₹15-20 crore and he built it in 2005-06 and expanded it later.
The hotel has 28 rooms and only 12 were operational when it got damaged, the owner said, adding that his family used to live in some rooms.
Before the demolition began, Rana had a series of meetings with the authorities over the compensation to be paid for his property.
“Nothing about compensation has been communicated to me by the authorities,” he said.
The owner and local residents supporting him were demanding compensation under Badrinath master plan before the demolition is carried. Under the Badrinath master plan, the state government had acquired the private land to build infrastructures around the revered shrine and gave ₹76 lakh per nali under one-time settlement. One nali is equal to 2,160 sq ft.
Local residents also said that an interim relief of ₹1.5 lakh each to the affected families was not adequate.
However, the state government had refused higher compensation saying unlike Badrinath, Joshimath a disaster affected region.
Meanwhile, the state government has also constituted a committee of local representatives and officials for transparency in the distribution of interim relief and deciding the rate of compensation for rehabilitation. The demolition came hours after chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami left the town after two-day visit.
According to authorities, they had vacated residential and commercial structures in the hotel’s proximity.
Once the demolition of Malari Inn hotel is completed, the authorities would begin the demolition of hotel standing next — hotel Mount View.
The two hotels have leaned against each other dangerously and major cracks had appeared at its entrance in a major threat to other structures, according to officials. The state government recently made it clear that they have no plan to demolish other residential structures in the town in which cracks have appeared.
The central building research institute (CBRI) chief scientist Dr DP Kanungo, who along with his team supervised the demolition, said, “The mechanical demolition would take a week or more. We have taken all safety measures to ensure the safe demolition. Every element will be cut and taken off the building. We began from the top and initially non-structural elements like furniture, and frames will be released to load off the building.”
He added, “The dismantling will be done 24×7 and in three shifts.”
According to officials, they were also keeping a watch on the weather as rain and snowfall may hamper the demolition which began amid light drizzle.
According to officials, as of Thursday, as many as 760 buildings have developed cracks in the land subsidence affected town, and 128 fall in the unsafe zone.
The bulletin released by the district administration said 165 affected families have been shifted to various relief camps in safer locations, with 27 families evacuated on Thursday.
