Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 2: The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) senior leader and former Legislator, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas today demanded re-opening of Mughal Road mainly for transportation of cherry to Rajouri-Poonch and other parts of the country.
In a statement issued here, Manhas said the cherry fruit worth thousands of crores of rupees will perish if the Mughal Road is not opened immediately. “The spread of COVID pandemic should not be made an excuse to conceal lack of will to work on the ground,” Manhas said and added that the lockdown across the country has been eased up and almost all other State Governments have already allowed inter and intra-state transportation of fruit and other agricultural produce amid the prevailing circumstances.
Stressing for allowing to and fro movement of fruit trucks from Kashmir to other parts of the country through Mughal Road, the JKAP leader said a hassle-free movement of fruit laden trucks via this historic road will safeguard economic interests of the fruit industry in J&K.
“Fruit growers who had stored their apple crops in cold storages last year and cherry growers are craving for reopening of the road to ferry their produce to Jammu and other parts of the country. Since the dilapidated Srinagar-Jammu National Highway is through only for vehicles carrying essential, the Government should immediately re-open the Mughal Road for transportation of fruit especially cherry produce as an alternative to the National Highway,” he demanded.
He urged the Department of Horticulture and the associated institutions to pay adequate attention to the problems faced by the fruit growers especially dealing with the cherry production. Ex-MLC urged the Govt to construct an underground tunnel to turn the Mughal Road into an all-weather route for the people of both the regions of J&K. “If the tunnel is constructed between Lal Ghulam and Chattapani, which lies on the other side of Pir Ki Gali, is constructed in a time bound manner, the same can reduce the distance between Srinagar and Jammu by over 30 kms. This tunnel will also bypass the toughest part of the stretch, which receives over seven feet of snow, ” he observed.
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