The State derives comfort from the fact that there is much interest at the central level in improving and upgrading road connectivity. Actually, road connectivity in J&K should have been taken in hand soon after the independence so that by now, during past six decades, the State would have achieved hundred per cent connectivity. Why our planners missed two important situations is not understandable. First is that J&K is a hilly state and maximum areas have to be linked by building roads in hills, rocks and mountains. This is not only an expensive endeavour but also time consuming one. Unfortunately, this factor did not dawn upon our policy planners. Secondly, and more importantly, we should have understood the strategic importance of J&K State as the one that is straddled across the borders of two neighbouring countries that are not only inimical towards us but have also forged nexus against us. Imagine that during past several decades China has silently built widespread network of roads in the eastern province bringing these very close to our border, be it Ladakh or Arunachal Pradesh. We on our part have been sleeping and finally caught napping. Even after the debacle in war with China in 1962, we did not learn a lesson and still adopted lackadaisical attitude towards this requirement.
It is a welcome step that though late, our policy planners have realized the importance of undertaking road infrastructure in J&K State. The urgency for the Centre of paying special attention to J&K road infrastructure is that in recent years the number of pilgrims coming to holy shrines in J&K has increased manifold. More than a crore pilgrims visit Shri Mata Vaishno Devi annually. The pilgrim numbers to Shri Amarnath holy cave come next and then there are other shrine like Shiv Khori in Reasi and Budha Amarnth in Poonch. This gives an idea of how much traffic passes over these roads and how much wear and tear these have to undergo. All these factors are compulsions for the Centre as well as the State Government to procure adequate funds for investment in road infrastructure.
In a major thrust, the Centre has conducted six month long study of the state roads and come to a conclusion according to which the Central Government has approved eight new National Highways in strategically important Jammu and Kashmir, which would spread vast road network and improve road connectivity in the State. The new Highways would link pilgrimage towns of Katra and Reasi, the base camps of Mata Vaishno Devi ji and Shiv Khori shrine, Baltal and Pahalgam, the base camps of Shri Amarnath ji shrine, Akhnoor and Sudh Mahadev in Jammu, border towns of Zanskar and Leh in Ladakh region and backward towns of Kupwara and Tanghdar in Kashmir. Three new Highways each have been approved for Jammu and Kashmir regions and two for Ladakh.
Three new Highways approved in Jammu included Domail-Katra-Reasi-Pouni, Jammu-Akhnoor-Nowshera-Rajouri-Poonch, and Batote-Chenani-Sudh Mahadev-Khelani-Doda-Kishtwar-Synthan-Khanabal. Two new Highways approved in Ladakh region are Kargil-Zanskar in Kargil district, and Leh-Debring-Mulden in Leh district.
The entire project will be funded by the Central Government. In fact when a road is given the status of Highway, its construction is undertaken by the Centre in normal course of things. It has to be understood that some of the existing roads like Batote Kishtwar/Doda – Kishtwar have been declared unstable by the Geological Survey of India. Therefore before things come to a dead end, alternatives have to be pressed into service. Improving road connectivity is the key to economic development of the district which these roads connect. If the projects are begun now, obviously the work will progress with the passage of time. The National Highway Authority of India will undertake the comprehensive road project and we expect that the task should be completed successfully. Once these connections are complete, it will have bearing on the economy of the state and it will enhance mobility among the people. More interaction will bring people closer to one another and thus national integration will be strengthened.
While we appreciate Central Government’s gesture of a major decision of spreading a network of roads in the State, we would like to remind the National Highway Authority that it is important to have a clear policy of maintenance of the new roads that will come up under the project. Normally repair and maintenance of these roads is left unattended and thus the purpose of investing so much money is jeopardized.
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