Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Government has shelved the up-gradation of 14-kilometers road stretch from Pampore to Pulwama in South Kashmir despite the passing of over a year since the tenders were floated for this important surface link.
An official said that the funds for the road have been diverted for other purposes as it was no longer a priority for the Government. “There has been no progress on the project since last one year and I think the Government has dropped the project,” an official privy to the details said, adding that the funds were used in tackling the COVID last year.
Besides connecting South Kashmir’s Pulwama district with the Pampore, the road also connects this Southern district with Srinagar city. The road was supposed to be developed under World Bank-funded Tawi Flood Recovery Project in 15-months, but the project remains a nonstarter even after passing over 18-month since the bidding process was initiated.
The project management unit of Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery units invited bids for the road on 3rd September 2019. The bids were supposed to be revised on 14th November and they were supposed to be opened on the same date. The road was supposed to be taken up with another road- Lasjan-Rambagh- with a project cost of around Rs 1.5 crore. “The whole process got delayed due to unknown reasons,” an official said.
Another reason for the delay in implementation of the project, he added, was the lax attitude of the officials in the bidding process. “The officials could not complete the process on time,” he said, adding that the pandemic equally affected the project.
Director Kashmir, J&K ERA, Tanveer Mir, told Excelsior that the project is not in their current approved program. “The project has been dropped. It was tendered but it is not in our approved program,” she said.
Asked about the reasons behind dropping this project, she said they are unaware about the reasons. “We are only implementing agency and do not know the reasons,” she added.
The residents of South Kashmir district said that this undue delay in the up-gradation of the road has disappointed them. “The road is narrow and in a bad shape. It needs immediate up-gradation. Government has done nothing to improve the connectivity of district Pulwama. We are always neglected in terms of connectivity,” Muneer Ahmad, a resident of Kakpora said.
“The road needs immediate attention. Being the only link to Pulwama district, the road needs special attention. The bad patches should be immediately repaired,” Ghulam Rasool, a resident of Pulwama demanded.
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