Mir Farhat
Srinagar, Jan 5: Srinagar city is likely to see its roads and drains getting waterlogged due to rain and snow this winter as about 238 drainage schemes are yet to be completed out of the 400 which were sanctioned since 2006.
The State’s Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD) is executing majority of these schemes through Jammu and Kashmir Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) and National Project Construction Corporation (NPCC).
Official sources said the Government had started around 400 drainage schemes in the State out of which only 162 schemes have been completed till now and work on other schemes has been stopped or is going at snail’s pace due to paucity of funds.
The HUDD has spent over Rs 132 crore by March 2014, the sources said. However there is no visible impact on the ground in the drainage system.
The poor drainage system gets exposed in winter when heavy snowfall and rains inundate the roads and lanes for weeks season after season.
In 2006, the Central Government had reportedly sanctioned Rs 300 crore under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for construction of a proper drainage and sewage system in Srinagar, sources said. But the delay by the Government to utilize the amount sanctioned for construction turns the summer capital into a cesspool during heavy snowfall and rains which inundates the roads and lanes.
The executing body, National Project Construction Corporation (NPCC) has completed only one fourth of the total project till today.
A top official of the HUDD said the unplanned constructions and paucity of funds were the main reasons for poor drainage system in the state, especially in the Srinagar.
“The problem of drainage and sewage system is getting from bad to worse and it will continue unless the project gets completed. The Srinagar city has the same poor drainage system that existed five years ago despite crores of rupees being spent over the years,” he said, wishing not to be named.
He also said that crores of rupees are being allotted to the SMC every year, but the Corporation has failed to make proper utilization of the funds, instead it has aggravated the water logging problem due to ill-planning.
Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) has been entrusted to execute infrastructure development projects including drainage system in the State financed from the loan taken from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through Government of India.
The ERA has only completed work on two water drainage projects along National Highway Bye-pass in Pohru Chowk-Chanapora storm-water drainage project and Bemina Chowk-Fruit mandi storm water drainage project.
“Other projects given to ERA are still incomplete. The agency is executing work on snail’s pace,” he said.
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