ANANTNAG: Sluggish pace and poor quality of work on the vital Dialgam-Laalan road, here in Anantnag district, has been causing severe inconvenience to the general public. Dozens of villages are dependent on this road for connectivity and travel.
The widening and black topping of the 5-kilometer road is being carried out under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY). The road is meant to provide better connectivity to villages like Dialgam, Kamad, Laalan, Chichripora, Ugjan and more than a dozen other villages on the outskirts of Anantnag town.
The work on the project started in the year 2018 and has been moving at snail’s pace ever since, with contractors leaving and resuming work at their own will and whim.
The residents of the area lament that the poor execution of work has been hindering their movement and putting them through much inconvenience.
“They have black topped only a part of the road and the rest has only water logged potholes. The journey on this 5-kilometer stretch should take a few minutes but due to the poor condition of the road it becomes a drag,” local residents said.
The contractors left work in July last year and since then only a small stretch was macadamized in November last year, locals informed. “That, too, has come off due to inclement weather, making the road all the more inconvenient to travel on,” they said.
Worse, the contractors have left the stretches through the residential areas un-widened. As a result, the most congested parts of the road are only 10 feet in breadth.
“They were supposed to widen it to more than 20 feet. The un-widened stretches near Dialgam, Ugjan, Kamad and Laalan make the road unsafe for pedestrians,” the residents said.
The executing agency has also not been able to remove illegal constructions along the road, residents said, emphasising: “Not even one of them.”
Kashmir Reader talked to Assistant Executive Engineer, PMGSY, Hilal Ahmad, who assured that work on the road will be completed within a couple of months.
“The work, stopped due to inclement weather, will be resumed soon as the weather has been improving,” Ahmad said.
Asked about the road widening process, the AEE said that the valuation of the structures to be demolished is being done.
“It needs an NOC from the owners of these structures. So far, we have only received that from one or two people. I talked to the Junior Engineer yesterday as well and he assured me that the process will be speeded up,” Ahmad said.

Suhail A Shah