In a sweeping set of financial approvals on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami cleared multiple tranches of state and centrally-matched funds spanning public health infrastructure, higher education salaries, rural connectivity, tourism facilities, and flood-plain management — a wide-angle snapshot of how a hill state stitches together its governance in a single sitting.

₹13.48 Crore to Anchor Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure in FY 2026-27

The first approval opens a new budget accounting head under PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) 1.0 for the current financial year. A total of ₹13.48 crore has been sanctioned from the State Contingency Fund as the state's matching share against the central allocation — a procedural but essential move that unlocks central disbursements for upgrading health facilities across Uttarakhand's districts. PM-ABHIM was announced in the Union Budget 2021-22 specifically to address gaps in public health infrastructure at the block and district level, and Uttarakhand has been drawing on it to shore up facilities in its remote, hilly terrain.

₹77.69 Crore Released for Staff at 21 Aided Colleges

For the Higher Education Department, the Chief Minister approved ₹77.69 crore as the remaining tranche of the ₹155.38 crore earmarked this financial year for salary and related payments to staff working in 21 non-government (aided) colleges. The release keeps pay cycles running for teaching and non-teaching staff at private-aided institutions that depend heavily on state grants — a constituency whose disruptions, when they occur, ripple quickly into student attendance and local economies.

Five Infra Projects Sanctioned Across Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Pauri and Udham Singh Nagar

A cluster of district-level approvals covers connectivity and tourism across four districts. In Pithoragarh district, ₹93.08 lakh has been cleared for an internal link road in Gram Sabha Dar under the Dharchula assembly segment, while ₹92.32 lakh goes towards the first phase of road construction from Bhumiya Mandir Gainthan to Kalsin Mandir and Khooni village in the Pithoragarh assembly segment. In Udham Singh Nagar, ₹10 lakh has been sanctioned for beautification, safety works, and boundary-wall construction at Shiv Mandir Anjaniya in the Khatima segment. The single largest project in this cluster is ₹4.44 crore for repair and improvement of the Furkiya tourist rest house on the Bageshwar Pindari Glacier Trek route in Kapkot assembly area, Bageshwar district — a facility that gates access to one of Uttarakhand's marquee high-altitude treks. In Pauri Garhwal, ₹4.89 crore has been approved for slope-protection works included in the revised cost of the Satpuli Barrage under the Dwarakhal/Ekeshwar development block.

₹288.41 Crore for Nine CRIF Road Projects; First Instalment of ₹115.36 Crore Released

The most consequential single approval in financial terms is the green light for nine road projects under the Central Road Infrastructure Fund (CRIF), with a combined sanctioned value of ₹288.41 crore. The first instalment of ₹115.36 crore has been released immediately, enabling work to begin on the ground. CRIF projects are a key conduit for upgrading state highways and bridges in Uttarakhand, where terrain makes road maintenance disproportionately expensive. Alongside this, ₹47.31 lakh has been approved for consultancy work on flood-plain zoning of the Sharda (Kali) river under the State Sector Flood Plain Zoning programme — a long-overdue technical exercise that will help map and regulate development in flood-prone zones along one of the state's major rivers.

Taken together, the approvals add up to a governance rhythm familiar to Uttarakhand: routine but necessary unlocks of central matching funds, salary lifelines for aided institutions, and project-level investments in a state where connectivity and disaster resilience are never purely administrative — they are existential.