The number of vehicles in Srinagar has increased five times in the last twenty years while road lengths saw negligible growth. Kashmir Life takes a look at the plans, and impediments, of building new roads in the city.
For many years now as the traffic in Srinagar city has increased manifold, hardly any new roads have been laid. In peak hours, the resultant traffic mess forces many people to foot the distances. The worst sufferers of the mess are the patients and the school going children.
“Usually when the durbar would move to Jammu, it would be a great relief because lot of the ‘ruling’ traffic would be off the roads,” said Mansoor Ahmad, a banker, who drives his kids to school every morning. “But this year, it does not seem to make any difference as one confronts traffic jams even at 9.30 am.”
Even authorities admit that the additions to the road length in the city of nearly 1.2 million people are not proportional to the volume of traffic that swelled with every passing day. But where is the scope to lay new road, they ask.
R&B officers tell Kashmir Life that Srinagar City has 1262 kilometres of functional road length. Out of which 976 km are black topped and 164 metalled.
“Against the target of 242 kilometres of roads to be macadamized this year we have already completed 222 kms so far at a cost of Rs 60 crore,” a senior R&B engineer said. In 2009, macadamization was done for over 300 kilometres.
With no scope for any new roads, the only available option is to upgrade and expand the existing roads. To some extent it is being carried out year after year. But it entails huge costs.
From Dalgate to Zakoora via Rainawari and Hazratbal, the entire road length is 10.30 km. It continues to be one of the busiest routes in the city and is barely a two lane track. The government named it Syed Merak Shah Road (SMS) and has been working on it for a few years to upgrade it into a four-lane road that will be able to tackle a good volume of traffic.
But the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department that is implementing the project would require Rs 336 crore to acquire the property rights of 332 residential structures and 750 shops besides 145 kanals of land. In last over one year, the department has been able to settle deals involving 69 structures, 142 shops and 10.35 kanals of land and it cost around Rs 26 crore.
Khanyar-Zadibal-Pandach (KZP) is another major road that will pass through Nowhatta, touch the historic Jamia Masjid, reach SKIMS and end at Pandach passing through the most crowded and congested parts of the old city. It has nothing to do with the so called 90-ft road that caters to a particular belt in the rear of Soura. It will follow the existing alignment of the 12.45 km two-lane road. Given the massive pressure, the road needs widening and upgrading to the four-lane status.
This project also requires massive investment to get the land that will pave way for its widening. Official associated with the exercise informed Kashmir Life that 368 structures, 750 shops and 118 kanals of land need to be acquired and it will cost a whopping Rs 235 crore. The progress, so far, has been to the tune of 54 structures, 83 shops and 7.99 kanals of land at the cost of Rs 11.14 crore.
Officials in state’s planning ministry said they have already released Rs 58 crore for the two projects. “We believe Rs 36.87 crore stands spent and apart from the balance sum of Rs 21.23 crore, there is a net demand for additional Rs 50 crore,” a senior planning ministry official said.
“There is nothing that has been done on the projects as far implementation goes because it will follow the acquisition part,” a senior engineering officer said. “It will take two more years and then the work will start.”
Engineering agencies are working in patches at a number of places upgrading and widening small interlinking roads within the city to add to the capacity.
All these works are being done by debit to the ‘Circular Roads’. Though the exact cumulative length of these stretches is not immediately known but officials aware of the projects said they would require taking over the property rights of 1214 residential structures, 824 shops besides purchasing 240.36 kanals of land. They already have acquired 108 houses, 88 shops and 11 kanals of land for Rs 19 crore.
But there is no expectation of these projects becoming an instant reality. Acquisition is a tedious process because it involves envisaging identification and evaluation of the properties involved.
Then the population is to be rehabilitated before the work on the project can start. “Execution of the project may take a year but it is pre-start part that will take two years,” a senior engineer said. Engineers identify the properties and a high level committee (HLC) led by divisional commissioner orders the acquisition.
But the major problem the government faces is the lack of space for rehabilitating the people involved. “We have had two colonies at Bagh-e-Shov (Ilahibagh) and Parimpora cumulatively offering us 210 plots and we have already exhausted them,” a senior officer privy to the developments said. “Right now we are in need of 650 plots (to rehabilitate displaced families) for SMS and KZP roads alone.”
Insiders in the R&B department said that the road widening project in the city has triggered demand for 2114 plots out of which only 182 have been arranged so far. “We are hunting for a major piece of land where we can set up a satellite township rather than a colony,” a senior engineer told Kashmir Life.
Most of the roads that need to be laid around Srinagar are already operational. The Northern Foreshore Road offers some relief as commuters are able to skip the congested city to save time. The road connecting SKIMS with Safakadal via Eidgah (Dr Ali Jan Road) offers some relief too but the route is suffering severely as one of the lane has almost been thrown into disuse.
The 17.80 km Parimpora-Athwajan bypass that was widened by the National Highway Authority of India as part of its North-south corridor project takes off some load too. The road is functional but it still lacks four major bridges and a flyover near Hyderpora. Once this is completely ready, there is possibility of breathing a bit at peak hours.
The possibility of getting another road in the periphery was discussed by former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. He planned constructing a road from Pampore via Lasjan to Mehjoor Nagar.
This bypass would cost Rs 300 crore and offer a way out to the massive traffic that clogs the Sonawar-Athwajan stretch passing through the cantonment board. It is not known if this road still forms any priority in the incumbent government.
This leaves the planners with only one option – to widen the existing roads, a process that has been on for many years now. These include upgrading the Moulana Azad Road from Dalgate-Dharamdas temple on one side and from Jehangir Chowk to Batamaloo. “We plan to extend this six-lane BT status road to Parimpora now,” a senior engineer in the R&B department said. Widening M A Road was initiated during Ghulam Nabi Azad’s era but could not take off because of 2008 agitation following which the government crumbled.
The other major project that has barely moved out of the concept stage is extending the flyover (that Mufti Sayeed government built) near the Jehanghir Chowk. Information available with Kashmir Life suggests that it will have three segments. Primarily it will be a four-lane divided 2.41 kms carriageway from Jehangir Chowk to Rambagh.
It will land short of the bridge and then rise again on the other side of the bridge to connect with Natipora. Besides, integrating existing flyover with proposed elevated road at Jehangir Chowk from Dalgate to Ram Bagh, it will have a straight connection between Amirakadal bridge and Airport Road through Saraiballa – shrine lane. The project is supposed to cost Rs 243.60 crore. The project has been handed over to the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) that has received bids by September 30, 2010. The project is awaiting clearance from the Asian Development Bank.
“The project has to be covered by the Loan-II that is still in the negotiation stage,” a senior ERA member said. “And major issue is that ADB rarely funds the acquisition and rehabilitation part.”
Sources tell Kashmir Life that the designs prepared by the engineering consultancy firm DHV India Ltd for the project were submitted to the ADB. It sought its further vetting by some reputed agency and the ERA engaged RITES India Ltd that made some corrections and returned. Given the problems that the project moves through congested belts, the ADB is unwilling to take chances.
It suggested ERA to get a third party to see if there are any grey areas which could be taken care of. Now the design has gone to IIT Roorkee and insiders expect it will get a formal approval by the end of this month only. It will only be after that the project will go to ADB for funding.
By the time, the project is okayed, the ERA is working to identify the structures that it would require to acquire and demolish. “Apart from 48 kanals of land, the project would disturb 30 households and 350 shops, mostly in and around HSHS,” informed sources said, adding some public utility structures will also take a hit.
ERA plans to set up a big shopping mall at the spot where the power development department building (gutted mysteriously on Eid this year) existed. Another mall will be constructed on the banks of the flood channel where the government has identified around 12 kanals of land. “The households will be paid in cash so that they get rehabilitated on their own,” insiders said. While the acquisition part will cost Rs 40 crore (part of the project), the rehabilitation will need another Rs 80 crore (not accounted in the project so far). ERA is planning to get part of the acquisition-rehabilitation funded by ADB which apparently seems very difficult. The project would need a number of public utility organizations like PDD, PHE and BSNL to be compensated by around Rs 12 crore, Rs 2.50 crore and Rs 1.50 crore, respectively.
