J&K State Road Development Corporation remains a wishful project. On 30th May 2012, the State Cabinet conveyed its nod to the creation of this Corporation. Fifteen months have gone by and no movement has taken place ever since in the direction of implementing the decision of the Cabinet. What prompted the cabinet to pursue the idea of establishing Road Development Corporation was the topography of the State. The National Highway is the only link between the State and the rest of the country. Internal road network is spread over mountains and hills and is maintained at a high cost. Moreover, the network has to be expanded to large areas since the Government is determined to bring connectivity to all hamlets and villages in the State. It was becoming difficult for a single agency to identify, survey, plan and execute construction of new roads and maintain the ones already constructed. This lead to the concept of creating a new organization by the name of Road Development Corporation within the R&B Department with the Minister for Roads and Buildings as its Chairman and State Minister as its Vice Chairman. The Corporation was devised to be the nodal agency for executing major roads and allied infrastructural projects. Our State is dependent on Central assistance for maintaining and expanding the road network. The State Road Development Corporation was supposed to promote surface infrastructure by taking up road works, including tunneling and appurtenant structures and take up projects on Build-Own Transfer (BOT), Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT), Build-Own-Lease and Transfer (BOLT) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) as well as major projects entrusted by State and Central Governments, sources said.
However, implementation of the Cabinet decision in this context has remained a dream. One fails to imagine the reasons that have led to the cold storing of the scheme. This was a good idea and had it been implemented soon after the decision of the Cabinet, we would have seen some movement in the area of Road Development Schemes and projects in the State. Is it because the cabinet decision provides space for private investment in the project which is likely to have bearing on the existing system? The Corporation would function something like an autonomous body leaving little scope for corruption and malpractices that we generally found in the R&B department. In other words, are vested interests at work and finding ways and means of sabotaging the implementation of the project?
We are severely handicapped in providing modern and highly developed transport system in the State. We have enormous requirement of infrastructure like tunnels, bridges, causeways, flyovers, embankments, by-passes, circular roads etc. The existing Department of Roads and Buildings cannot cope with the magnitude of work that is to be done and this was the reason why the Cabinet wanted a separate organization to take care of these things. Efficient and modern road connectivity is of paramount importance to the development of the State. Bringing in railway line does not in any case minimize the importance either of the National Highway or of link roads; it rather adds to the necessity of upgrading link roads to facilitate public transport system. While according nod to the establishment of Corporation, the Cabinet had observed that it (Corporation) will have the responsibility of attracting Viability Gap Funding from Union Ministry of Road and Transport and Planning Commission besides reducing dependence on State exchequer in respect of maintenance of State Highways and Major District Roads.
We are informed that implementation of the Cabinet decision would not involve a large budget and could be undertaken within the financial capacity of the R&B Department. If that is the case then there should not have been inordinate delay in implementing the scheme. We would like to remind the Government and especially the Minister for Roads and Buildings that surface connectivity in the State is not up to our expectations. While connectivity to remote places in the State is one part of the scheme, the other part is of streamlining transport system in the urban areas and the twin capitals. The newly formed Road Development Corporation should be galvanized into action, provided infrastructural facility and made to start its work without any further delay.
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