Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Aug 28: The 51-day long unrest, which is showing no signs of ebbing, has left all sectors in Kashmir crippled and the work on developmental projects worth hundreds of crores that were going on across the Valley have come to standstill.
According to State Government officials, the current unrest that started after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and his two associates in an encounter at Kokernag area of Anantnag in South Kashmir on July 8 has resulted in complete halt of developmental works that were going on till Eid last month.
Chief Engineer of Roads and Buildings (R&B), Satish Razdan told Excelsior that nearly 95% works are suspended since the outbreak of violent protests. “More than 1000 works under various State and Centrally-sponsored schemes in all sectors including Health, Road and Education have come to a halt because of shutdown, curfew, violence and non-availability of labour,” he said.
Razdan said that as a result of halt in developmental works, more than 50% amount of around Rs. 1400 crores reserved for developmental works is lying un-utilized. “We were working till a day before Eid and everything was going smoothly. The work was going on fast pace and we were a month ahead in our plan but unfortunately everything is paralyzed now because of unrest,” said the R&B Chief Engineer.
Several developmental projects that are being executed by Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) have also come to halt due to unrest and notable among them is Rs 250 crore Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover project here and Rs 26.75-crore state-of-art multilevel car parking facility at Lal Chowk. With regard to much hyped Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover, a senior official of ERA said, the work has completely come to standstill since July 8.
“Though the contractors are still stationed here but majority of labours working on the flyover project have fled the Valley soon after the unrest began and very few are here. In this situation, we cannot continue work and also there is no end to curfew and shutdown,” said the ERA official, adding that similar case is with other projects. The fate of projects including vital few vital bridges that are being executed by Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation Limited is same.
The R&B Chief Engineer said that besides regular works, they were targeting to complete the construction of 54 bridges that were completely washed away in September 2014 floods by March 2017. “But it seems we may miss the target since the situation is yet to normalize and there is lot of uncertainty across the Valley,” he said.
Apart from developmental works that are being carried out by State Government, the work on four-lanning of Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in south Kashmir and on Srinagar-Baramulla Highway on outskirts of summer capital by Border Roads Organization (BRO) has also come to halt due to unrest. Since the unfolding of violent protests, there is no progress on these projects and concerned officials and workers are nowhere in sight.
According to various officials, the developmental works in Valley will remain affected even as the situation improves because 90% of non-local labourers working in the Valley have fled. “They left soon after violent protests raged because of fear and lack of works. This year, there is least possibility of their return even if the situation returns to normal because now winter is not too far,” said an R&B official and added that the pace of developmental works too slows down soon after September due to short days and cold weather.
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