Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has urged Union minister Nitin Gadkari for widening important highway stretches in the state, particularly from Basukinath to Dumka.

In a letter to Gadkari on Thursday night and released to the media on Friday by the chief minister’s secretariat, Hemant has reminded the religious importance of both Basukinath and Deoghar (both places have temples of Lord Shiva and witness large crowd of devotees during the month-long Shravani Mela between July-August) and the difficulties faced by devotees because of the poor condition of roads leading to these cities.

Hemant has apprised Gadkari that Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar is an important pilgrimage site of Jharkhand.

“Each year in the month of Shravan (between July and August) lakhs of devotees from different parts of the country come here and offer the holy Ganges water to Lord Shiva. The Shravani Mela has not been organised in Deoghar for the last two years due to the pandemic. However, it is likely to be held this year if there is no surge in the Covid scenario,” the letter informs.

The chief minister’s letter states that the conditions of the roads leading to the religious place should also be good as the devotees walk barefoot during the month of Shravan.

“From Deoghar devotees go to Basukinath Temple (in Dumka district), which is 40km from Deoghar. Both these places are connected by the NH114A. The widening and strengthening of a two lane road from 68.5km (Tower Chowk, Dumka) to 87.53km (Basukinath) of NH-114A has been sanctioned by Union ministry of road and highways at a cost of Rs 148.24 crore,” the letter mentions.

“The work for this was assigned to the contractor in November 2021. However, the work was terminated in March 2022, as the contractor could not mobilise the resources. Due to lack of upkeep the road condition has gone from bad to worse.

“In light of the present condition of the road and the upcoming Shravani Mela, the state government has no option but to get the necessary repair work done through the state fund for improving the conditions of the road,” the letter said.

Hemant in the letter requested that the construction of road from Deoghar to Basukinath is under the process of four-laning by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The existing two-lane road stretch from Basukinath to Dumka is also developed as a four-lane road corridor.

He also urged that the road from Dumri (on NH-02) to Deoghar may be developed into four lanes to ease the flow of traffic from Ranchi to Deoghar and assured to extend all cooperation to the ministry from the state.