Srinagar-Qazigund stretch of NH to be four-laned

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 7

For those traversing on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, which has been in a “critical” condition for several months, the troublesome journey may end soon as four-laning of the Srinagar-Qazigund stretch is scheduled to be completed by June next year at a cost of Rs 1,170 crore.

The maintenance of the existing road will be completed within the next two weeks with the issue having been taken up by the state government on a priority basis. RMKY Infrastructure Limited, the construction agency, has been directed to complete the maintenance work of the existing road within the next two weeks.

It has been directed to carry out 75 per cent of the four-laning work by December this year and complete the work by June next year, official sources here said.

During the recent months, it had been difficult for road users to traverse on the 66-km stretch even as the biannual Darbar had moved to the summer capital and the summer tourist season had already picked up.

In view of the “critical” condition of the stretch, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took up the matter with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and the Border Roads Organisation, looking after highways and many other roads in the state.

The project, taken up up three years ago, was scheduled to be completed last year, but missed many deadlines. The floods in September last year further damaged the road surface.

“We will monitor the work on a weekly basis,” said SK Razdan, Chief Engineer, R&B, Kashmir. He was in the high-level team led by R&B Minister Altaf Bukhari which inspected the road on Tuesday.

“While widening the road, the construction agency was supposed to maintain the existing road so that people did not face any problem,” he said. The Chief Engineer said no attention was paid to the maintenance of the road and it was damaged before and after the floods.

In view of the condition of the road, which had earned the government a bad name, restoration work was taken up by the R&B Department at an estimated cost of Rs 4.73 crore earlier this year. The amount was quite less in view of the extent of damage and road length.

The estimate went up to Rs 24.73 crore in January this year, but the move was withdrawn on the advice of the NHAI. It directed RMKY Infrastructure Limited to take up the restoration and maintenance work, said the Chief Engineer.

The dilapidated stretch across the four districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam in south Kashmir was further damaged after the September floods. Sites and machinery of the construction agency got inundated, leading to suspension of work for several months.

It was among the several projects on the highway to be upgraded as part of the national highway corridor from Srinagar to Kanyakumari. The Udhampur-Jammu stretch of the highway had been completed while the Udhampur-Banihal stretch had been facing delays due to various reasons.