Srinagar: The planned widening and upgrade of Syed Meerak Shah Road, between Dalgate and Zakoora through old town Srinagar, remains a distant dream more than 13 years after the project was sanctioned.
The 10-kilometre stretch is one of the most vital routes in the city, connecting city center Lal Chowk to Hazratbal Dargah, Old Town, Dastgeer Sahib, the University of Kashmir, the Institute of Mental Health in Rainawari, and many other important places.
Given the fact that the road mostly snakes through the congested old town and is quite narrow, traffic snarls along the stretch are some of the worst in the city.
“The situation has been the same for quite a while now. That is the reason the widening project was sanctioned,” a senior official in the Srinagar district administration told Kashmir Reader.
He said that the project was sanctioned in 2009, but thirteen years down the line even the first phase of the project remains incomplete.
“There has been a paucity of funds on the project and that has been the major roadblock,” the official told Kashmir Reader, adding, “And it does not look like the project will be completed anytime soon.”
The shopkeepers along the road, business owners, locals and commuters all rue the lax attitude towards the project. “Kashmir University should be a ten to fifteen-minute commute from Lal Chowk, but given the traffic on this stretch, it takes more than half an hour, sometimes even more,” a master’s student at Kashmir University said.
This reporter talked to Sheikh Shavez, Joint Director of Planning at the Roads and Buildings Department. He said there was a huge land and building acquisition cost to the project, which has been the major roadblock.
“We will need abput 350 crore rupees for the acquisitions and subsequently the project. An estimated 50 to 60 crore rupees have already been spent on the project,” Sheikh told Kashmir Reader.
Moreover, he said, there was an ongoing court case pertaining to the project. “I won’t say that the project has been abandoned but the work is moving on very slowly,” he said.
People, whose properties need to be acquired, however maintain that they are more than willing to cooperate with the government. “If they had the will, the project would have been completed by now, but looks like it was just another political gimmick,” a building owner in Khayyam area told Kashmir Reader.
Others that Kashmir Reader talked to were of the same opinion.
Meanwhile, as the days pass, the project gets even more difficult with the ever-rising cost of real estate as well as of construction material. In wake of such a huge financial burden, the project may not be completed ever.

Suhail A Shah