Mount View and Malari Inn - two unsafe hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath - have been razed more than a month after their demolition began.

The process of their demolition has been completed and removal of debris at the site has begun, District Information Officer Ravindra Negi said on Friday.

Mounds of rubble remain where the two popular hotels stood for years.

Carried out under the technical supervision of Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute, the demolition of the hotels, one floor at a time, cost more than Rs 1 crore.

The process had begun on January 12 as the two hotels leant precariously towards each other posing a danger to the settlements around them.

The order for their demolition hit a roadblock initially as it was opposed by their owners who demanded a one-time settlement on the lines of those displaced in Badrinath, delaying the process by a couple of days.

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