news details |
|
|
| Boulevard road widening project shelved | | Govt bows before influential hoteliers | | Saqib Ahmad
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 27: Five years after it was approved by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the Boulevard road widening project has been shelved allegedly to save the property of some influential people.
Omar had approved Rs 60 crore project for widening of the Boulevard to four-lane status from Dalgate to Kralsangri, Brain. He had directed the authorities concerned to complete the project on fast track basis.
However, sources said the project was shelved due to stiff opposition from some influential hoteliers whose property was coming under the proposed road widening.
"There has been an inordinate delay to undertake the project because of objection by some influential people who have nexus with some top politicians and bureaucrats," said a senior official of the Roads and Buildings Department. "This shows how the influential people are dictating terms to the authorities," he said.
Earlier, the High Court had pulled up the state government over delay in the Boulevard road widening and asked it to file the status report.
Several PILs were also filed in the High Court pleading why the government has failed to start work on this vital road, which has been causing immense inconveniences to the common masses and tourists due to traffic congestion.
Sources said the Boulevard road widening project was taken up during the Master Plan of 1970, but nothing has been done till date.
They said that to save the property of some influential people, the government had earlier decided to undertake road widening on the Dal Lake side. However, some environmentalists, civil society members and the opposition PDP raised their concern, saying road widening on the Dal Lake side would prove disastrous to the water body.
Several department including Lakes and Waterways Development Authority had also refused to give the NOC for road widening on the lakeside.
But sources said government has been mulling to undertake road widening from Nehru Park to Kralsangri instead from Dalgate only to save the property of some influential people from Dalgate to Nehru Park. "Road widening from Nehru Park to Kralsangri would prove futile unless government does not undertake road widening from Dalgate because this area witnesses heavy traffic jam," said Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Nehru Park. An official of the R&B Department confirmed that road widening will not be undertaken on lake side.
"The road would be widened from Nehru Park to Kralsangri and not from Dalgate. We have completed all the formalities but it will take some time to start work on this project," the official said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
