Long traffic jams become routine affair in Ramban sector
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, May 11: Frequent landslides and shooting stones in Ramban sector of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, which have turned this nearly 40 kms road patch most dangerous, continue to take toll on the passengers and other road users while long traffic jams has become the routine affair on this highway.
Though landslides in Ramban sector of this only all- weather National Highway linking Kashmir with the rest of the country is not new, yet with the launch of 4-laning work in Ramban and Banihal sectors for the last few years, this road patch has become more dangerous and problematic. Even during dry season as well, shooting stones and falling of boulders has made this road as virtual ‘death trap’. During last one and half year, more than a dozen people including a DIG of paramilitary force and three Goverment employees have lost their lives with the sudden falling of boulders in Ramban area.
The road users and the people living along this highway, especially in the slide prone Ramban-Banihal belt are irked over the slow pace of work on the four-laning of the highway project, undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) over the last about eight years. The tender work has been secured by Gammon India Ltd and HCC companies which are operating under NHAI from Nashri to Ramban and between Ramban and Banihal.
A senior officer in the District Administration at Ramban said that the Gammon India Ltd and even HCC have further sub let the road widening work to some local small inexperienced contractors. Due to lack of experience to dealt with civil works on this strategic and tough mountainous terrain, the local contractors having very limited machinery and expertise, are creating problem. This has resulted into frequent closure of the highway.
Moreover, they are not dumping the debris at the identified locations and throwing directly into river Chenab in sheer violation of the NGT guidelines. During blockade of the highway and pressure on them to restore road, they throw `Mulba’ into the river. This has become the routine for them between Ramban town, Cafeteria Morh and Mehar area near main Chenab bridge, the officer said .
Madan Gopal, a local trader at Ramban said this road has become a virtual death trap. “You can see the drivers of all types of vehicles, both light and heavy, moving out of their lanes to avoid the massive potholes dotting the highway right from Chenani to Banihal, thus increasing the chances of accidents on the hilly road. Moreover, light motor vehicles continue to pass vehicles and later create traffic jams. Due to the presence of limited number of Traffic cops on the highway, the LMV operators continue to create indiscipline on the highway and invite unwanted traffic jams and accidents. The long traffic jams even fume the passengers and other road users. The ambulances also get trapped some times in jam”, he said.
He added that even during lockdown period also, the traffic jams are often seen in this sector these days. The traffic snarls in Ramban-Banihal sector for the last few years have become another cause of headache to the road users. The shopkeepers in Ramban town and Chanderkote are also suffering badly due to smoke pollution created by long traffic jams and slow movement of vehicles, he added.
A tanker driver Sohan Singh from Chatha area of Jammu said, he turned lucky twice when his tanker was partially hit once in Panthyal area and once a passenger vehicle was extensively damaged just ahead of him at Battery Chashma when he was returning from Srinagar during this monsoon season. He had narrow escape there.
Singh said “when we start from Nashri towards Ramban and Banihal, we can’t imagine whether we would reach safely to our destination or not. Anytime a boulder and shooting stone may target and take life away”.
Sohan, who is 57-year old now, said he is operating on this highway up to Ladakh for the last 25 years, but he has been witnessing this highway, the most dangerous these days. Earlier, during rains only landslides used to take place but now even during the fair weather also, it is happening. No one can predict when and from where the stones would fell down on the vehicles plying on the highway. There is no safety of the passengers and operators and the agencies like NHAI, Gammon/ HCC etc should be directed to ensure safety of road users on the highway, he said.
Mohd Iqbal, a resident of Banihal said he is frequent visitor to Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur for his work. He said the State Administration is not paying any attention towards the apathetic condition of this road. “At least, they should direct the agencies to fill up the potholes which are causing damage to the vehicles and also inviting avoidable accidents on this road. He said highway widening work was started during 2011-12 and five years time was given to the agency. It was also claimed that four-laning of the highway would reduce the time of travel on the highway by half (4.30 hrs) after shortening the distance between the two cities , bypassing a number of treacherous points. But the highway project has already missed a number of deadlines due to slow pace of work.
Mohd Irfan, another local from Ramban said the life of locals of the area has become miserable ever since the work on the highway project was launched. He said HCC and Gammon have outsourced their work to local contractors who do not have much expertise and experience of cutting mountains, as a result of which “we are facing increased landslide activity even if there is a light rain or no rain”. He said sprinkling water on the road by the executing agencies is just a cosmetic exercise to silence the local residents who are at the risk of health issues due to excessive inhalation of dust which is emitted from the work sites.
While referring to recent massive landslide and sinking of 39 residential houses at Dalwas village in Ramban, he said it was the direct fallout of the unplanned execution of work on the project. Nobody was held responsible and no high level inquiry was held. A few electricity transmission towers were also uprooted and some others partially damaged.
Project Director, NHAI, Udhampur-Ramban sector, P K Phonsa said that Dalwas area of Ramban remained problematic for few weeks and it was single road there creating long traffic jams. But now, it has been made double. Being Kucha, the movement of traffic on this 500 mt patch is little slow.
Phonsa further said that construction agencies have standing instructions to maintain the road while carrying out widening work. After August 5, 2019 hundreds of labourers moved outside the J&K. In between weather also remained unfair. Now, lockdown has hit the work. The road could not be maintained since then. Now, the maintenance work has been started from Udhampur side. Within 4-5 days, the patches up to Chenani would be cleared. Within next 15-20 days, the remaining potholes/ patches will also be cleared up to Banihal, he added.
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