Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 23: Expressing serious concern over slow pace of mechanical dredging of river Jhelum, former minister and MLA Amirakadal Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari has called for corrective measures to be taken to get the project executed expeditiously in a time bound manner.
He stressed on removal of bottlenecks, which have so far hampered the overall progress in achievement of the desired results. “The dredging project was chalked out to help increase the carrying capacity of river Jhelum and its flood spill channels. But the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities has sofar yielded minimal desired results in that direction,” Bukhari rued and demanded that the project be completed within a set deadline.
The former minister said that the Government should keenly manage and supervise this important and critical project keeping into consideration the level of devastation caused by the September 2014 floods in Kashmir, especially in Srinagar city. “September 2014 floods caused huge silt deposition all along the river path from Sangam to Srinagar. In such a condition, the experts have already warned of an immense threat to most of the Municipal areas in Srinagar city. However, the cumulative dredging work done in River Jhelum sofar indicates that the authorities are hardly moved by the havoc created by September 2014 floods,” the MLA remarked.
Bukhari stressed on the need for speedy dredging of river Jhelum from Srinagar to Wullar Lake besides de-siltation of the flood channels from Srinagar to Panzinara village in North Kashmir as was targeted in the aforementioned dredging plan.
He said the time limit for the completion of the dredging project should be the top priority of the authorities for increasing the carrying capacity of river Jhelum and its flood spill channel. “The reports about the capacity of presently operating dredgers in River Jhelum are disturbing so the executing agency needs to go for segment dredging with a combination of appropriate marine equipment to be installed at the vulnerable locations,” Bukhari observed.
The former minister said that the proposal mooted out for creation of an additional flood spill channel from Dogripora to Wullar lake which would have created an additional carrying capacity of around 55000 cusecs of water needs to be accorded a favourable consideration or elsewhere the authorities must go for construction of additional storage tanks all along the river path from South to North Kashmir.
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