Budgam: Fed up with the local authorities in the Roads and Buildings Department over the last several years, locals in Sogam village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district have voluntarily repaired a patch of dilapidated road with their own pooled money and construction material.
The said Sogam-Badipora road, which has been macadamized probably once in living memory of the locals, has literally been a nuisance for the commuters lately due to the pits and the massive dust, that nearly blinds you every time a vehicle passes by.
The road patch at the top of the slope, a few metres down from the Chadoora-Surasyar main road, had particularly been tormenting especially for the four-wheeler drivers, who, no matter how much caution, could not escape a dent or a scrap on the bonnet due to the concrete pipe laid across the road and left bare in absence of macadamization over the years.
With macadamization from the local authorities not coming despite several appeals, local villagers last week took the repair work upon themselves in a typical example of voluntarism and fixed the said road patch after pooling money.
On Thursday evening, a group of youth volunteers laid concrete on the said road patch after village elders including Manzoor Ahmad Sofi, Shabir Ahmad Mir, Ghulam Nabi Najar and Mohammad Altaf among others voluntarily donated the construction material- rubble and cement- for the repair work.
The road was closed for the next few days and was opened only on Eid to facilitate commuters especially motorists distributing sacrificial meat on the holy occasion.
Since Eid, it has been a smooth ride for the commuters at least at the said repaired spot, which had otherwise been a nightmare even though the rest of the road patch still remains to be dilapidated.
Pertinently, the Lieutenant Governor J&K, G C Murmu recently announced a programme for “100 percent macadamization” of roads across the region.
Executive Engineer R&B Division Chadoora, Er Sheikh Hilal said that he will look into the macadamization of the said Sogam-Badipora road.
Hilal further added that it was not possible to simultaneously macadamize the road length in the division that he said, stretches upto more than 900 km owing to limited funds.

Irshad Khan