Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Oct 23: Scarcity of funds and alleged dilly-dallying tactics on part of successive Governments has severely affected the work on new bus stand at Drusoo area in Main Town of Southern Pulwama district, owing to which both people and transporters are suffering.
With an estimated cost of Rs. 32 crore, the work on bus stand was started five years ago in order to decongest traffic and provide relief to locals, but so far there is no major headway in the project. Due to terminal’s incompletion, the buses arriving and departing from Pulwama town continue to block traffic. Locals and transporters accuse successive regimes of employing dilly-dally tactics.
“We are waiting for the completion of this bus stand for years,” said a driver, Imtiyaz Khan, adding: “It looks like that administration is not paying heed to our demands and due to which this project has been at standstill. We are suffering.” The local residents said authorities’ failure to complete the project has increased traffic mess and has further aggravated the problem.
“The bus stand would have regulated the ever-increasing traffic and also it would have controlled massive traffic jams. Every day, we have to suffer traffic jams for hours but it hardly matters for the Government,” Shabir Ahmad, a resident of Pulwama, said.
One official from transport department in Pulwama said that the proposed bus bay would have reduced the traffic conjunction by 40%.
“It would have accumulated all the buses and cabs, which operate from the roadsides. Some of the small bus stands would have also been absorbed there,” he said. He also said that the roadside vendors that are the main hurdles in the smooth movement of traffic would have also been shifted to the new bus stand.
“The project is incomplete as the funds have not come at an even pace,” said an engineer, who is working on the project. “The Government releases funds from Board meeting to Board meeting that means after every one year,” he rued. Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Ghulam Mohammad Dar claimed that the bus stand would be thrown open within one week.
“Right now we are trying to macadamise the yard and within one week we will make is functional. This will help us to tackle the traffic mess in the town,” he said.
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