Anantnag: A year and half after it was thrown open for traffic, the Srinagar-Qazigund stretch of the new highway (NH-44) is still incomplete, with at least one fly-over pending, while the work is on halt for several months now.
Stretches of NH-44 were thrown open for vehicular movement in April of 2018. Work on several stretches of the NH, particularly bridges and flyovers, continued amid vehicular movement.
Diversions were created for the traffic and, even though at a snail’s pace, some of these stretches were completed recently. However work on a fly-over, passing over the railway line, here in Kulgam district of South Kashmir remains in limbo.
The fly-over near Shoal village and Rampura does not appear to be going near completion any time soon.
“Some pillars have been erected on one side of the road and there is nothing on the other side. It is not clear whether the fly-over will be constructed on only one side or it will be a two way affair, in which case it will take years to complete,” local commuters told Kashmir Reader.
They said that the incomplete fly-over greatly affects the traffic movement on the stretch of the highway.
“These days the trains are not plying. Otherwise it is often time consuming to pass the stretch when a train is passing by,” Khalid Ahmad, a commuter on the stretch told Kashmir Reader.
Another commuter said that the regular traffic halts enforced by government forces when their vehicles are moving around become messier at this Railway juncture.
“Because the road becomes single lane at the junction and the forces stop vehicles from both the sides. Had the fly-over been complete at least the forces would stop only vehicles on the side their convoy is moving,” the commuter told Kashmir Reader.
Aijaz Hussain, Vice President (VP) of RAMKY, a Hyderabad based construction company entrusted with the construction of the NH-44 in Kashmir said that the work was suspended due to lockdown in the valley.
“The work was going on but the situation worsened and it had to be stopped,” Hussain told Kashmir Reader.
Asked that the work has been suspended at the site for over a year now, Hussain said that the best person to talk to will be an official from National Highways Authority of India.
Hemraj Bhagat, Regional Officer for NHAI in Kashmir, acknowledged that the work has remained suspended for quite a while now.
“While efforts were being made to restart the work on the site, the situation in Kashmir turned ugly. Now that the situation is getting better, the work might be started again soon,” Bhagat said.

Suhail A Shah