Waseem Ahmad
Shopian, Feb 21: Three years have passed since the devastating floods of 2014 washed away a bridge over Tongri Nallah at Zainapora area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district but the bridge is yet to be rebuilt.
The 45 meters long bridge connecting Shopian with Bijbehara and was being rebuilt under flood damaged infrastructure (Flood Bridges) plan by Roads and Buildings (R&B) department.
As per locals, the old bridge was damaged in 2014 floods and the process of reconstruction started in 2015 but government has failed to complete the work on stipulated time.”It has been three years since the work on the bridge was started but the bridge is still incomplete. We have to face immense hardships for reaching National Highway. Before floods, we were able to reach on the Highway in no time,” Tariq Ahmad, a resident of Zainapora, said.
An official of R&B department told Daily Excelsior that the construction of the bridge was started soon after the floods but the project was delayed due to problems in land acquisition. “There was some land acquisition problem with the locals of the area that was the reason for the delay in the project,” he said
Abdul Aziz, Executive Engineer, R&B Shopian said apart from the problems in land acquisition, the unrest of 2016 in the Valley also delayed the project. “The work was stopped in 2016 due to unrest as the continued protest crippled our movement. Besides, there was an issue with a High Tension electricity wire above the bridge, which also hampered our work. It took some time in convince the concerned department to shift the wire,” he said
He said the bridge was being constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 398.96 lakhs and 90 percent of the work is complete. He hoped that the bridge would be completed by the end of March this year. “The work is going on full swing and about 90 percent of the bridge is complete. It will be complete by the end of March this year,” he added.
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