Srinagar: While the majority of roads across Kashmir valley including in Srinagar city lie in broken and rugged condition, the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department is awaiting clear weather to begin repairing and black-topping the roads.
The heavy snowfall and extreme freezing temperatures this year have caused substantial damage to most roads in Kashmir. The roads have been either left damaged or dotted with potholes.
The R&B department is yet to repair or patch-up the dilapidated roads with officials saying that they are waiting for the weather to clear and the temperatures to rise above 20 degree Celsius.
“Weather is acting as an impediment to repairing the damaged roads. The repairing and black topping of roads remains largely subject to weather conditions. We’re looking for a pause in the frequent wet-spells happening over the past few weeks and also considerable increase in temperatures, touching at least 20 degree Celsius, both of which are necessary to carry out effective repairing of roads,” Er Showkat Jeelani, Chief Engineer, R&B, Kashmir, told Kashmir Reader.
Jeelani said that the damaged roads require extensive work including metal patching, which even a little spell of rain will spoil.
“A few days back, we started metal patching work in Anantnag. But the rainfall played a spoilsport and wasted all our efforts. This inclement weather is making even the initial work of metal patching difficult and challenging. Despite this all, we are still going ahead with metal patching work at certain places of the valley in the past few days,” Jeelani added.
Given the present scenario of weather and temperatures, the department will be carrying out repairing work of affected roads in a full-fledged manner after 25th of April across the valley. “However, it may happen sooner given how the weather behaves and temperature changes,” Jeelani remarked.
Meanwhile, the dilapidated condition of roads is giving tough time to a large number of commuters. Several roads in Srinagar city including Rainawari to Hazratbal, Nowgam-Sanat Nagar Bypass, Chanapora to Bagh-E-Mehtab and many others have been left unattended even after developing major potholes. Certain stretches of roads are without a macadamised surface.
“There is routinely a huge traffic gridlock here at NIT and Hazratbal. A major stretch of road has been damaged, and the entire stretch is potholed. In peak hours of morning and evening, the traffic situation worsens,” said Irshad Ahmad who commutes regularly through Hazratbal.
For the past two months, Irshad complained, the dilapidated condition of the road has remained “status quo” and despite having two major educational hubs, including Kashmir University (KU) and NIT (National Institute of Technology) along it, no one has paid any heed to the traffic snarls and problems faced by the commuters, especially students.
The apathy of the government can be gauged by the potholed condition of the vital Eidgah road which serves as the main road to the premier hospital of J&K, SKIMS (Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences) in Srinagar. The hospital usually caters to huge influx of patients from Kashmir valley and Chenab region.
The Batamaloo-Eidgah Road leading to the hospital, as per locals, has developed deep potholes at certain places which can prove dangerous for emergency ambulances which are usually driven fast to rush the patients to hospital.
The condition of roads is no different in other parts of the valley. Commuters complain that they not only face inconvenience daily but the condition of the roads is also taking a toll on the fitness of their vehicles.
