Karanvir Gupta
Have you of late taken a trip from Lakhanpur to Jammu to Chenani Nashri till Ramban? It is fascinating to see so many new roads coming up – land dug up at every intermittent stretch. Some patches sliced and diced into bylanes, some muddled under the upcoming flyovers, mountains cut at places with debris spread all over. These are the signs of a robust infrastructure development that is going to adorn the region of Jammu province in a very short while. But that is only what you think in your head. A figment of imagination that we always love to create the moment we hear the terms, “road projects”, “infrastructure projects worth 1000s crores”, “development projects”, “tunnels and flyovers”. Hail Hail these projects! Jammu is going to shine! Unfortunately the reality is far from that.
But by the time the reality hits it will already be too late. In one of the recent articles among many, I read about the decline of business activity in the Jammu region. A lot of reasons were quoted citing policy regulations and other stuck matters. It is great that we have been able to pinpoint the economics of low trade and what hampers business activity in the region of Jammu. But it is important that we unravel the layers underneath this decline in business activity. Let’s take a deeper look at the interconnectedness of various factors that are preventing Jammu from growing to its full potential. Truth must be told and understood.
Never Ending Road Construction: In recent years, there has always been one or the other construction happening on the Lakhanpur-Kathua-Jammu road connecting other townships such as Samba, Vijaypur, Bari-Brahmna. This happens to be the entry point for the state of J&K. A prime stretch of around 110 kms of national highway that offshoots many internal villages, rural areas and industrial areas across the road. The construction on this stretch has been never ending. With lack of planning and vision; these patches have been done-undone, only always remaining under-construction for years. This leads to menace for the general public, incoming-outgoing cargo traffic and severely impacts the influx of the tourism that would otherwise enjoy the ride enroute NH 44 (earlier NH-1A). This leads to another fascinating yet alarming situation for all the districts of Jammu province.
Bypassing all districts of Jammu: While the idea and the promise is to ensure there is “development”, more business and trade in Jammu region. The end result always happens to be counter-intuitive. The speed of travel comes at the decline in business for businessmen of Jammu. It started with the construction of a direct railway route from Delhi to Katra which eliminated a major influx of tourists halting over at Jammu during their journey. But as always, people of Jammu have always submitted to such development projects for the sake of larger good and convenience. But nothing was done to ensure that this is duly compensated by a plan in place that brings more business to the town. Today Jammu stands at the cusp of being vanished from all trade routes by bypassing it and submerging the Jammu under the flyovers. They shorten the distance and shrink the pockets of the business section of the region.
The new flyovers coming across NH44 are only going to further bypass the towns of Samba, Vijaypur, Jammu while taking all vehicular traffic on the outer ring road directly to Srinagar via Udhampur. This further eliminates the possibility of any tourist, traveler or caravans to make any place in these districts as a halt-over point in their journey. While exits have been planned, interestingly those exits do not compensate for the business for an entire community as these shops at the exit-points are contracted to a handful of people. After looking at the design of these new flyovers, it feels as if the sun has set for towns in Jammu. The townships gloom in the dark. The direct roads being constructed between Jammu-Poonch, Lakhanpur-Doda, Lakhanpur-Udhampur will eventually bypass Jammu city for any possible traffic going to other districts of Jammu. This might not show immediately but the ramifications of slow or dying business are going to hit the people of Jammu vehemently eventually.
Destroying Natural Landscape: Interestingly the tourists who come to various districts of Jammu do not come to see the “city landscape” but to enjoy the natural beauty, easy pace, rich heritage, and serene environment of the places nestled in these districts be it Bani, Basohli, Rajouri, Poonch, Bhaderwah, Panchairi, Basantgarh, Sudhmahadev, Kud, Patnitop, etc. With the massive construction and tunneling projects, we are only harming the natural landscape of these places. Mountains are being consistently chopped and trees are being fallen in hundreds. If you have ever taken a road trip along the banks of Chenab enroute Jammu-Srinagar highway, you will see how the entire debris (out of construction activity) is being dumped into the river basins of Chenab, Tawi and other streams/tributaries thereby polluting these water sources beyond repair. These “infrastructure development” projects have forgotten to take into account the health and environment of these places into consideration. We often forget that tourism brings trade and not the other way round. Destroying a place’s natural landscape has more permanent and long term impacts on its natural existence, weather and habitation and business prospects. And we have failed to craft a development plan that safeguards our villages, towns, and hometowns in their indigenous existence.
The Future Impact of Concretization: A lot of the recent strong heat waves can be attributed to immense concretization of these places. As the world grapples with global warming, it is only more important for places like Jammu province to ensure that we do our bit to sustain our healthy climatic conditions by maintaining (in fact increasing) our forest cover, planting more forests, using sustainable material for flyovers, roads and bridges thus ensuring sustainable development. It is an opportune moment for places like Jammu – which are naturally gifted with landscapes, mountains, forest cover, water sources – to become a model city for other cities of the world. Then we would truly be called a Smart City. But the reality seems to be quite the opposite. We are blindly following unsustainable practices and not able to define development that benefits both people and the places.
When you look at these factors in unison, you will realize that these fancy-flyovers are not only going to eat all the business from Jammu and its districts, they are also going to destroy our natural landscapes thus doing us more harm in the near future and long term.
What you deem to be fancy-modern and ultra infrastructure projects, they are not going to deliver anything to us unless implemented with conscious caution, proper planning and a vision in mind for Jammu and its 10 districts. So, next time you wonder and worry about declining trade and business activity in Jammu, remember to take a comprehensive look at the development plans and ask, “if these development plans actually bring development to People of Jammu or not?” Because every flyover is not a route to more development and trade, some (read most) of them just bypass us.
I take this moment as an opportunity to request all DDCs of ten districts of Jammu province to come together and evaluate all development projects in unison with one another. While it is great to see our district flourish and prosper in its own might, it is pivotal that we make our each district self-sufficient while supporting other districts. We need to ensure there is an interconnected development plan that enables each district at every step and each sphere of progress and prosperity. Only then can Jammu province truly flourish and sustain for long. We need to create a development model that is sustainable and practical. That is going to be our real strength. It is high time we create Jammu province as a model for centuries to come and transform it into a city with a heart (people friendly), a city with lungs (environment friendly), a city that is on an autopilot mode (process friendly). Development needs to be redefined for soft places like Jammu. This is my request to all DDCs to come together and put together an All inclusive development plan for Jammu 2030 which promises to cradle the natural beauty of our places rather than destroying and vanquishing them under unwanted and poorly designed projects in the name of “infrastructure development”. A plan that puts people and place at the heart of it.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
