Bridges washed away in 2006 yet to be constructed

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 1: The bridges washed away in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal 9 years ago in floods are yet to be re-constructed and thousands of the inhabitants living in the area are facing hardships.
The inhabitants of Kangan in the District of Ganderbal are waiting for construction of short span bridges which connect about seven villages to mainland of Kangan and Government says funds are major impediment in accelerating the pace of work.
The short span bridge at Tangchater situated in the area of Kangan was washed away by floods in 2006 and the then Chief Minister and Minister of R&B Department had assured the people of locality that the steel bridges will be built in a short span of time and the cost of which was estimated to the tune of Rs 712.15 lakhs.
The residents said that the construction of the bridge remained dream for the seven villages in which thousands of souls are living as no response came from the Government till date which constrained the villagers to knock the doors of justice.
It is stated by the villagers that Government accorded approval to the construction of bridges and transferred Rs 15 lakhs to executing agency (JKPCC) that started work but due to interference of the concerned MLA and other politicians the work has been stopped and funds were diverted for the construction of other bridge situated at Akhal, Kangan.
Villagers have knocked the door of Jammu and Kashmir High Court and are seeking compliance from the functionaries as well as completion of work on the bridge with a further direction to the concerned departments of Planning, Finance and Public Works department to ensure that adequate funds are made available for the completion of work.
Commissioner Secretary Public Works Department Rohit Kansal in his status report filed before the High Court says that Rs 82.50 lakh stand already released to the executing agency against the said work and the balance as on April, 2015 is Rs 629.85 lakhs and Rs 10 lakhs have been proposed for the said bridge during the current financial year.
Kansal further reveals in his report that department is facing difficulty in accelerating the pace of bridge projects primarily due to resource constraints. “There is huge balance cost of ongoing bridge projects against which very meager resources are available. The approved allocation for ‘special bridge programme’ for the year 2015-16 for both divisions of Kashmir and Jammu has been estimated as Rs 40 crores while as the balance cost of the bridge projects at the state level is Rs 726.69 crore”, reveals the report.
It is also said in the report that 233 bridge projects are included in ‘Special Bridge Programme’ with estimated cost of Rs 799.55 crore and the expenditure incurred is Rs 326.45 crore leaving the balance of Rs 473.10 crore for completion of the said projects but only Rs 20 crores are available.

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