dehradun the union government has approved a new road to be constructed at a cost of rs 248 crore that will connect the char dham shrine towns of badrinath and kedarnath the project will save close to 3 hours of travel time for pilgrims who undertake the yatra after completion of the road pilgrims will be able to go directly from badrinath to kedarnath and avoid going via rudraprayag which takes more timethe project is likely to be completed in about twoandahalf years it usually takes over seven hours from badrinath to reach sonprayag near kedarnath the point till where there is a motorable road hari om sharma engineerin chief of the public works department pwd in dehradun told toi we had a meeting with officials of the ministry of road transport and highways morth on monday and the project has been approved the government order and official confirmation will follow in the next few dayssharma added under the project there will be a 2km long bridge on alaknanda river and a 900metre long tunnel before rudraprayag it is these that will essentially cut short the travel time chief minister trivendra singh rawat while welcoming the move said prime minister narendra modi has a special liking for uttarakhand and char dham shrines he added that efforts were underway to connect the char dham towns with rail services alsosources said the 900metre twolane tunnel will have a capacity of 10000 cars per day the uttarakhand government had already given its consent for the project and sent a report in this regard to the centre in 2019