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| Commuters, civil society want road be handed over to R&B deptt | | BEACON fails to repair Srinagar-Bandipora road | |
Early Times Report
Bandipora, Apr 17: After BEACON miserably failed to repair the Srinagar-Bandipora road in the last five years, the commuters and civil society of Bandipora are now demanding that maintenance of this vital road be taken away from project BEACON and handed over to state's R&B department.
The previous government had even mooted a proposal of transferring many BEACON projects to the state, but with the change of guard in New Delhi, nobody knows what has happened to that proposal.
The condition of the 60 kilometer Srinagar-Bandipora road in north Kashmir district has become more pathetic during last few years especially after last years floods. The R&B department is unable to undertake any repair work as the road is supposed to be maintained by project BEACON of Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
The said road especially from Sumbal onwards has deep potholes that irk not only the drivers but the passengers as well. The stretches of roads on the outskirts of Bandipora town have their bitumen layer washed away and large craters have been developed at several places. "We want BEACON authorities should handover the Srinagar-Bandipora road to the R&B department as the officials of BEACON are hardly accessible to people in Bandipora especially during winter months and people don't know where to go and which officer be contacted," said Mir Mushtaq, chairman of Al Fallah Trust, a civil society organization based in Bandipora.
Locals say that project BEACON can continue to oversee the vital road from Bandipora to Gurez but rest of the road especially from Bandipora to Srinagar be maintained by R&B.
"It takes more than two hours to travel from Bandipora to Srinagar which otherwise should take only one hour," said Mohammad Amin of Garoora village in Bandipora
Pertinent to mention that state government last year had asked Government of India (GoI) to shift all the projects of Jammu and Kashmir from the BRO to the state's R&B department.
Former PWD Minister Abdul Majid Wani last year had said that government had submitted a proposal to National Highways Authorities of India (NHAI) to transfer projects of J&K Highways to the R&B department.
In an interview with a Srinagar-based newspaper last year, Wani had said that BEACON has disappointed people of J&K as most of the projects currently under the authority of BRO have been pending for years.
He also said that BRO had their own projects near border areas and the state would not be interfering in them because of security reasons.
"Looking after the projects near border areas is absolutely their (BRO) duty and state government won't hinder that in any way, but the construction of highways in J&K should be handed over to the R&B, and I hope that central government would accept government's proposal soon," said a senior R&B official based in Civil Secretariat Jammu. |
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