ONGC to give Rs 10 cr for widening Gaurikund-Kedarnath trek route

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will be giving Rs 10 crore out of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to the Uttarakhand government for the widening of Gaurikund-Kedarnath trek route.

An assurance to this effect was given by Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat when the latter called on him in New Delhi yesterday, an official statement issued here said.

It was at the chief minister's request that the union minister agreed to raise the amount to be given by the ONGC for the purpose from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 10 crore, it said.

The ONGC board had earlier approved an amount of Rs 4.5 crore for the purpose.

The width of the pedestrian route from Gaurikund to the Himalayan shrine is being increased from 2.5 metres at present to 6 metres.

It was also decided at the meeting to get the citizen welfare and infrastructure development works in Gangotri and Yamnotri done by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).

Rawat apprised the union minister that in the Women Polytechnic, Dehradun, only retired ONGC officials are taken in the Polytechnic board.

The chief minister also requested Pradhan that government officials and academicians should also be inducted in the board to which the union minister gave his consen