Overview

• A Sept. 16 cloudburst in Dehradun killed more than 18 people and left others missing, with a later Uttarkashi deluge destroying roads, bridges and utilities in towns including Dharali, Harsil and Tharali.
• Regional damage is severe, with multiple stretches of the Kullu–Manali highway and the 270 km Jammu–Srinagar road washed out and Jammu & Kashmir estimating about 12,000 km of roads destroyed.
• The Niti Aayog finding links the Char Dham project to 811 landslide zones along roughly 900 km of highway, underscoring expert warnings about destabilised slopes and flawed design.
• A parliamentary panel led by Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi identifies elevated NHAI roads without culverts as a major driver of flooding in Punjab, while MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa presses the ministry for corrective action.
• Critics accuse NHAI and minister Nitin Gadkari of bypassing proper environmental assessments and committing design errors, as CM Pushkar Singh Dhami advances tougher anti-conversion and UCC live‑in penalties and proposes a Rs 6,200 crore corridor on Dehradun’s Rispana and Bindal riverbeds.