One place on earth where I am always ready to go is Uttarakhand. Once again, I packed my bags and hit for the mountains on an assignment. As soon as overnight train from Lucknow to Kathgodam reached Lalkuan in the morning, ‘change’ could be sensed. Once ubiquitous, but now almost extinct, on most rail route, I could still hear the words chai-chai here. Fresh hot tea readied me for the onward journey.

Journey from Kathogodam to Helpiya village, near Askote, in Pithoragarh district is long at over 250 km, or almost 10 hours, but interesting. Helpiya would be my abode and workplace for the next three days. Shared taxis have now replaced buses, once operated by KMOU (Kumaon Motor Owners Union Limited), a private company of 1939 vintage, as mean of travel.

The road from Kathgodam to Bhimtal is wide and good. From Bhimtal to Ghat the 140 km road is narrow, but good. One becomes breathless when all of a sudden some vehicle appears from the opposite side and both screech to dead slow to give way to each other. The 30 km road from Ghat to Pithoragarh is in a mess these days as work on widening it is going on. Traffic is stopped in phases several times during the day for breaking hill side. From Pithoragarh one has to change the taxi for onward journey. The last taxi for Dharchula, on which my destination is, leaves Pithoragarh by 3 o’clock. If one misses this, he has to stay in Pithoragarh and resume journey the next morning.

I was very lucky throughout my journey. My car negotiated Ghat after 1 o’clock in afternoon, the time for lunch for the road workers. This meant that I reached Pithoragarh in time and got Dharchula bound taxi. The flip side was I did not get time to eat anything after breakfast at Bhimtal. Very hungry I reached my destination around 6 in evening.

Road Widening

Ghat-Pithoragarh road is part of National Highway 9, connecting Tanakpur to Dharchula via Champawat and Pithoragarh. This road is of strategic importance as it connects nearest cantonments in Bareilly and Banbasa in plains to borders with Nepal and Tibet. It is used more by Army, Indo Tibetan Border Force and Sashastra Seema Bal, than by common citizens. Kathgodam is well connected with other parts of the country by rail and bus, while Tanakpur fares badly in this respect.

Till a few years ago, it was a narrow single lane road all along. But increasing traffic and probably movement of heavy defence vehicles prompted the Government to decide for its widening. When I saw hill side being broken, my first reaction was why on earth is this being done to destroy the mountains. As afterthought I find this is really needed. We need to move men and equipment quickly in case of any problem at the border. And of course, we the citizens using the road will have comfortable, safe and fast journey. I was told danger to environment is minimal – instead of blasting by dynamite to loosen the hillside for digging as was done earlier, only required part is cut by giant machines now.

Telephone Services

Courtesy road widening, telephone, mobile and internet services in the entire area are in disarray as telephone lines have been damaged. Mobile signals and mobile internet are erratic and weak. Throughout my stay I had to move ‘up’ to call my home and send a photo on WhatsApp. In hills there are just two directions ‘up’ and ‘down’!

Telcos are trying to tackle the situation in their own way. Jio seems to have come out with a novel idea. Instead of burying its fibre optic cable in roadside trenches, it is laying the cable on the poles. Interesting! Even more interesting is they are using pine poles and use of iron poles is minimum!! And the pine poles are given the same ‘respect’ as iron poles – they are fixed to the earth with concrete cement base and clamps are fixed atop to hold cable. I hope that next time when I visit the area, there will be proper mobile and internet services.

No doubt, Mukesh Ambani starts thinking from the point where others stop thinking.

(To be concluded)