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| Srinagar-Jammu all-weather road still a distant dream | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 20: The four-lane Srinagar-Jammu national highway would have been all-weather road and the passengers would not have been stranded in Jammu for weeks due to blockade of the national highway, had the authorities completed the vital project on time.
Kashmir has been often cut off from rest of the country during winters. The Valley is incurring heavy losses due to closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the only road connecting region with rest of the world. At the same time, the government has failed to complete major developmental projects in Kashmir, which could have helped Kashmir to remain accessible with rest of the world.
The Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only road link to outside world, has been often closed for the past over a month, causing inconveniences to the passengers, who are stranded in Jammu for weeks.
To upgrade Jammu-Srinagar road into four lanes for all weather route, the authorities started a project several years ago and the project was to be completed in 2013. However, the construction of four-laning Srinagar-Banihal road link has missed multiple deadlines.
The four-laning Jammu-Udhampur link has been completed long ago and work on the expansion of road beyond Udhampur is underway, but the Srinagar-Banihal four laning is yet to be completed.
Similarly, a railway line up to Udhampur on Jammu side was completed long ago but rail network sanctioned in 1995, which would connect Kashmir with other states, is still far from completion.
In the past 24 years, this project has faced cost overrun of over Rs 25000 crore. The Jammu-Srinagar railway link was declared a "national project" in 2002 by Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government and August 15, 2007 was fixed deadline for its completion.
While, it has been 14-years since the Centre approved construction of tunnel on the Mughal Road, the project is yet to see the light of the day.
The project was approved in 2004, when the PDP shared power with Congress in the state. The proposal was for seven-kilometer long tunnel between Zaznar and Chathapani at 3000 meters altitude on the 230-year-old Mughal road.
However, the work on the project is yet to be started, resulting which, the 84-kilometer road remains closed every year almost for five months. It does not only stop vehicular traffic but also hampers the business between the two regions. |
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