₹22 crore parking project halted.

The Uttarakhand High Court has stayed construction of a ₹22 crore multi-level parking facility in Bageshwar’s Garud tehsil, finding it was being built within the riverbed of the Garud Ganga—a tributary of the Gomti—in violation of government directives and environmental laws . The petition, filed by local resident Dinesh Chandra Singh, highlighted that the project deviated from the originally approved Paye village site per a June 7, 2015 order, and risked obstructing river flow during monsoons, thus increasing flood danger and potentially wasting public funds . The executing agency, BRIDCUL Pithoragarh, began work near the Golu Market taxi stand—directly in the river’s course—despite NGT guidelines banning such construction in water channels . The Garud Civil Society demanded the project be relocated to the sanctioned site. The court’s intervention reflects growing judicial scrutiny of Uttarakhand’s infrastructure projects that overlook environmental safeguards and violate master plans governing riverbanks and floodplains .

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