New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on companies to invest money in Kedarnath as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Expect a slew of corporates to heed the call in rebuilding the hill shrine.
“It will definitely happen, because it’s a signal,” Tushar A Gandhi, a managing trustee of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation who is also active in the field of CSR, told News18.
“Those who want to curry favour with the Prime Minister will rush to invest there,” he added.
PM Modi was in the hill shrine on Friday to inaugurate a new township close to the temple. In his speech, he not only called for corporate investments but said that environmental norms will be followed in all construction activity.
Reconstruction of Kedarnath, on the popular Char Dham tourist circuit, is still ongoing after the devastating floods of 2013. In June of that year, a landslide near Kedarnath released massive amounts of water down the Mandakini river which washed away everything in its path. The flood water gushed on both sides of the temple causing mass destruction. Thousands of pilgrims were missing or stranded in the landslides.
A master plan drawn up by the Uttarakhand government in 2015 for rebuilding Kedarpuri estimated that it would cost at least Rs 250 crore. “There is a lot of rebuilding being done after the tragedy of 2013 and the private sector must be involved in a manner,” Tushar Gandhi said.
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