New Tehri

vmehra24

Excursion to New Tehri from Haridwar seems to be getting popular --to see Tehri dam. I would like to know if there is anything else to see/do in the area and if staying night would be any good.
Thanks
Vishal

nyraghu

When I passed through Chamba, I thought that it looked like an interesting town. It is 11 km. from New Tehri, and has a GMVN hotel which is apparently located atop a hill. It may be nice to spend a day there.

Slightly on a tangent here, but I wish there was an excursion that would tell visitors about *Old* Tehri, and the damage that the dam has caused.

Raghu.

vmehra24

Dam buliders are pitiless otherwise they might have remembered Old Tehri-- at least a scale model of the city could be built.

arunchs

If they knew what pity is, they would never have built a dam in the first place.

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nofar

i stayed last Sept.(06) one night in new hotel name "gaurav palace" which was nice & clean.. the menager sowed us gient airphoto of old teheri bfor the dam was built...then he fingered on the photo all the places that are covered now with water...
we didnt get any tips from locals about speciel things to c so...next morning we just moved on driving along the big lake..

Dilliwala

No, and no.
Altho there are a few quiet walks out of town that are possible - personally I find the area too depressing, having been to Tehri first time as a kid decades ago, then one of the last outsiders to drive into the town (Oct '01 - becos I made a wrong turn!) before they started filling it up, and having driven by a number of times in the last 2.5 years, before and after total submersion.

Excursion? The whole town is under water. All u can see is the top of the Old Palace Hill, near the sangam of Bhagirathi and Bhilangana. Altho the district admin is making big plans to start boating, picnic spots, etc. in other words "promoting tourism"...yes, we will have our excursions soon! The bas..rds can't be bothered to get the only bridge in the area to cross to the other side (Bhagirathi left bank) cleared of boulders - caused by landslides, which is what happens in a highly seismic zone where u shudn't be building dams in the first place - so that small vehicles can get across again and people don't have to drive for 4 hours via Pipaldali bridge to get to their villages when it wud take 1.5 hours instead, OR to put in a HTV bridge near-abouts the light one mentioned above, to replace the submerged one at Bhaldiana so that normal buses, trucks, etc can get to the other side and people don't have to pay the jeep-taxis on the other side 4 times what it used to cost them to get to their villages, that is after having to walk across the light bridge with their luggage/stuff/rations in the first place....but TOURISM WE SHALL HAVE!! FOR SURE.
Damage? Damage is what u have if u're lucky. Try total wipe-out.

Last year on one of my visits to the Survey map office in Dehradun, I discovered that they had a detailed guide map of Tehri town. I grabbed it, so that in twenty years time when there are no more maps avbl, I would have a reminder as to what Tehri used to look like.

Dilliwala

As if submerging the area was not bad enough, urbanisation is coming soon as well:

Land demand shoots up around Tehri reservoir

hima22vin

development plans, foreign consultants, and no time bound program, how many hotels are planned? and now development authority! to stop development? let us see the pace? is it first dam reservoir in himalaya? NO, has any body studied about others?

Amit Joshi

I have grown up in Old Tehri. I spent 15 years of life in Old Tehri. It is submerged in water now due to some pathetic development plans of Governments. We rehabilitated to a new place called New Tehri. That time I was in 12th standard. Initially Government arranged few buses for us but as all roads are very risky. People started shifting reluctantly to new place.

Government promised to develop biggest tourist hub to New Tehri. But despite all the scenic beauty, pleasant weather and huge potential to attract tourist nothing has done so far.
Yes, there is a boat (ferry), which will take you on a tour of dam but not many people aware of it. Yes, there is plan to construct Ring Road surrounding to lake. I don’t think so they are gonna do it. Yes there is a picnic spot for tourist but Ill suggest no to go there for picnic. Yes they tried to construct Ropeway. But due to lack of Government desire or corruption everywhere make it impossible.

But still its nice place to visit for excursion. Place like Mata Surkunda tample, Ranichouri. If you know some and you are capable to convince someone to get permissine to enter in Tehri dam project area. It would be huge opportunity to visit a massive construction site.

If you are adventures and want to explore nature I’ll adivise to go for Sam Mukhem Tample darshan and temple is Buda kedar temple which is 63 km from tehri and you are a good trekker u can go for Katling Glacier trek also which is 64 km from tehri. Apart from that Chandrabadni Temple, Kunjapuri Temple, Partapnagar fort (Not very famous spot and not contains good transportation facilities).

I visit in every 3-4 months to my place but do not have time to involve in tour activities. But whenever I get some time I go for bike tour and my favorite season is spring coz more greenery and more clouds would be there, which I like most.