Mir Iqbal
PULWAMA, Oct 20: Despite the lapse of more than seven years, construction work of Pulwama Ring road project has been left half way due to official apathy.
The work on 11.90 kilometer road from Gangoo to Bonoora villages in the district was started in the financial year of 2005-06 to streamline the traffic coming from and to district Shopian including traffic of Mughal road to Srinagar city.
“The Rs 28.27 crore project was divided into two phases and its first phase was completed few years back from Gangoo to BSNL Exchange Pulwama on Pulwama-Awantipora road, but after that the work was stopped,” said Executive Engineer Mohammad Ayoub Wani, Roads and Buildings Department, Pulwama.
Wani said R&B has completed the first phase of 2.7 kilometers of the road with an estimated cost of Rs. 6 crore. “But the work was not started on the second phase because it needed more than 47 Kanals of land, which farmers refused to give without compensation,” he added.
“The farmers were willing to give land for road at a reasonable compensation, but lack of financial support from the Government was the biggest hindrance,” Wani said.
Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Pulwama, Dr Shah Faesal said apart for construction of the road, the department needs more than Rs 10 crore to compensate farmers and other land owners coming under II-phase of the project.
“The construction of a Ring road around Pulwama town is a good initiative, which could have been of great help to end frequent traffic jams in the town, but lack of funds is the main barrier for this big project,” Faesal said.
He also said the Government has disbursed 80 percent of compensation money among the farmers, whose land came under the project in the first-phase, adding, that land acquisition was the biggest hindrance as the farmers must be satisfied with the compensation given to them.
The vehicles have to hang for hours in the peak hours every day in the main town near Shaheed park crossing as there is no alternative road for vehicles.
Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Manzoor Ahmad Lone said the project conceived in 2005-06 at a cost of Rs. 1379.98 lakh and the time of its completion was three years, but work on it was left half way due to paucity of funds.
Lone said the district administration has held several meeting to discuss the future strategy of the project and also framed a detailed project report, which was later forwarded to Planning Department of the State.
“This amount required to compensate farmers is huge, even the State Government can’t afford to pay such huge cost for the project, but the project can be completed with the financial assistance of Central Government,” the DC said.
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