Srinagar: A Srinagar Smart City project to lay a cycle track along the capital’s North-South Corridor has hit a bump after the Jal Shakti Department raised a red flag, withdrawing its NOC (no-objection certificate) for the project, though Srinagar Smart City Limited (SSCL) officials are hopeful of taking forward their project and completing its first phase by the summer.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir PK Pole last month shot a letter to the SSCL to stop work on the first section of the Rs 680-lakh project to lay a 4.58-km footpath and cycle track along the right side of the North-South Corridor from Soura to Ahmednagar. Pole asked the SSCL to stop the work immediately and report the work done, if any, along with photographs and videography. Pole stated in the letter that the Chief Engineer of the Jal Shakti Department, Kashmir, had conveyed to him his reservations with regard to the cycle track.
According to top Jal Shakti officials working with the Master Plan Division Srinagar, who look after the work of laying of drainage pipes along the corridor, the apprehension of the department was that a cycle track could not only pose threat to the adjoining water supply lines to the city, but in future may impede any new pipeline laying or repairs in the existing network.
There are two pipelines of 1200-mm diameter and 700-mm diameter currently laid alongside the corridor and there is a proposal for laying another 1050-mm diameter pipeline to bring additional potable water to the city from the Rangil Water Treatment Plant.
“The SSCL has done away with the pavement and we are apprehensive that they may eat away at a part of our corridor, so we have objected to the work and the work has now been put on hold,” a top Jal Shakti official told Kashmir Reader.
So far, the SSCL has demolished the already existing pavement from Soura Awanta Bhawan Junction to Elahi Bagh crossing, even managing to shift away the High Voltage Distribution system of the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited.
The nerve utility corridor, according to Jal Shakti officials, is to be safeguarded from works over the section as the pipes below can get damaged.
However, SSCL officials told Kashmir Reader that they will ensure that the pipeline remains untouched and they are ready to allay any apprehensions in this regard with the line departments, including the Jal Shakti Dpartment, and will soon convene a meeting in this regard so as to carry forward with this prestigious project.
Rizwan Khursheed, Project Coordinator of SSCL, told Kashmir Reader that a pavement along with a cycle track will come up along the route and they will ensure the safety of adjacent water pipelines.
“We will again meet with all the stakeholders and will even engage with the metro authorities here, who are also proposing three stations along this stretch, to see how seamlessly they gel with our project,” he said.
“We are hopeful of finding a solution soon and by June this year the first phase will be completed and we will then move further,” Khursheed said.
He added that they are even planning to take on the work on the left pavement that would be utilised for underground cabling alongside the road.

ABDUL MOHAMIN