Anantnag: Work on the vital Bijbehara-Shopian road, here in south Kashmir, is held up because funds under a central government scheme have been coming in trickles, as per officials of the executing agency — the Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department.
Roughly a 27-kilometre road that connects dozens of villages between Bijbehara in Anantnag district and the Shopian district headquarters, this route is also vital because it connects the old Srinagar-Jammu national highway to the Mughal Road.
Keeping in view its importance, the widening and black-topping of the road was sanctioned under the Central Road Fund (CRF) of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry of India, with about 48 crore rupees earmarked for it.
As per sources in the R&B Department, only 10 kilometres have been completed thus far while the rest of the road lies in a shambles.
“The first 3 kilometres were completed in 2017 and subsequently work was carried on another 7 kilometres,” the sources said, adding that the first roadblock came when a couple of other departments were asked to shift their utilities from along the road.
The utilities included electric poles of the Power Development Department (PDD) and the water pipes laid down by the Public Health and Engineering (PHE) department, which is now called the Jal Shakti department.
“Funds had to be arranged for these two departments as well to make them able to shift the utilities, which was a major hindrance in the widening process,” the source said, adding that the shifting of the utilities has been completed but now the funds are not being released in due time.
As a result, the road has been left dug up at several places. “This is the shortest possible route we have to reach Anantnag and the national highway. The alternative is to travel to Shopian, then to Pulwama, and from there to the national highway or any other part of the valley. The pathetic condition of this road is hurting us badly,” Gulzar Ahmad, a resident of Zainpora village along the road, told Kashmir Reader.
Other local residents said that the widening of the road has not been uniformly done.
“It was meant to be a 24 feet wide road but it is only 10 feet at certain places, 12 at others, and 24 at only some places. The department seems to be sleeping over the project,” Abdul Samad, a resident of Mamuna village, told Kashmir Reader.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Chief Engineer, Roads and Buildings Department, Showkat Jeelani Pandit, who acknowledged that work on only 10 kilometres has been completed thus far.
“Initially it was the coordination with other departments that hindered the work but now we have been facing shortage of funds,” Pandit said.
He said that some work was being carried out but the black-topping was subject to release of funds under the CRF.
He expressed hope that the funds will be released soon.

Suhail A Shah