Fruit & honey belt along Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail corridor

By Arun Kumar Das
RISHIKESH, Oct 13: The hectic construction work for train connectivity amid the hills is also opening up another corridor along the 125 km long Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail route – fruit and honey belt as part of the sustainable development.

The muck extracted during tunnel excavation is being used to fill the open space between hills and plans are afoot to plant about 10,000 various fruit bearing trees on the newly created landfill site.

While the higher altitude will have plum, apricot, peach, Himalayan blueberry and similar varieties grown in upper reach, the lower sites will have citrus varieties like orange, lemon, malta, jackfruit, Indian gooseberry (Amla), pomelo, sweet lime, pomegranate among others.

“We have selected fruit-bearing plants carefully keeping the prevailing condition of the hilly region so that these species could be grown along the route,” said Himanshu Bodoli, Chief Project Manager CPM) of the project.

Since tunnels consist of the majority of the route with 83 per cent of the entire track from Rishikesh to Karnprayag passing through mountains, there is a large quantity of muck excavated from these tunnels.

These mucks are deposited at the earmarked sites between hills. These landfill sites are now being readied for plantation of trees.

He said there is an elaborate plan for horticulture development, afforestation and sustainable water management across the Rishikesh–Karnaprayag Rail Project.

Besides, the water coming out from these mountains during construction is also being collected to use it for horticulture purposes.

“The water stream coming out from the mountains is constant here. So we have made arrangements not to waste the precious water to be used for various purposes including afforestation, ground water recharge and cleaning also,” Bodoli said.

As per the landscaping programme near stations, there will be ornamental plants including flowering shrubs and perimeter hedges suitable for station beautification and slope management.

There will also be aromatic plants and climbers like Golden Trumpet, Yellow Trumpet, Harsingar, Raat ki Rani, Champa, Chameli and Wild Himalayan Rose.

Bodoli further said There will be setting up  of decentralized nurseries along with poly-houses to develop bee-foraging floral corridors (“Honey-Belt”).

The purpose is to engage local village communities to foster sustainable, agriculture-based rural livelihoods through apiculture and nursery management, he said.

This will be circular sustainability as it will promote livestock integration alongside plantation drives. Organic manure generated from livestock will be utilized for soil conditioning and sapling growth.

Milk and dairy produce will generate continuous livelihood support for local households.

The project envisages percolation ponds across project catchment areas for effective rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging which will be known as Amrit Sarovar.

There will be a total of 12 stations; all railway stations along the alignment are equipped with STPs; treated effluent will be systematically reused for trackside plantation and landscaping needs.

All the stations will have adequate parking lots, food courts and recreational centres for road users also.

“We are planning rooftop restaurants at stations so that one can see the beautiful view of the hills from the station roof,” he said.

The new railway line will connect important towns like Devprayag, Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gauchar and Karnprayag through 5 districts of Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag and Chamoli.

Besides providing faster connectivity, the new line between Rishikesh and Karnprayag is an important development project in Uttarakhand.

It would facilitate easy access to pilgrimage centres situated in Uttarakhand and to connect new trade centres along with development of backward areas and to serve the population living in the area. (BVI)