The story of political dignitaries laying the foundation stone of a bridge over the mighty Chenab at Pargwal but the bridge never coming into being, is a typical story of seek and hide in cheap politics of the State. The State expressed its intention of constructing a bridge over the river that would connect Pargwal area with Khour tehsil in Jammu region. This project has been a victim of whims and vacillations on the part of politicians, engineers and the people to whom it concerns most. The least one can say about the project is that there is no clear planning, no roadmap and no consensus where, when and for whom the bridge is to be built. For the first time, former Speaker of Legislative Assembly laid its foundation stone at Hamirpur Kona in Pargwal area joining it with Hamirpur Sidh in Khour tehsil. Only the foundation stone was laid and no a spadework was done to begin the project. Nobody explains why the work did not begin. Maybe political leaders and their stooges were interested in selecting a different site to serve their interests. Then for the second time the then Deputy Chief Minister laid the foundation stone upstream of Hamirpur Kona at Sajjaw, joining it to Inderi in Jourian of Khour tehsil. Obviously, the high dignitary did the stone laying for the second time at a different site under public pressure and political interests. Evidently, PWD must have given the green signal for the changed site. Ordinarily, selection of a site along the bank of the river where a bridge will come up is a serious business.
Engineers consider many things like the stability of the soil, span of the bridge, connectivity on either side and the bridge and the size of the population the bridge will serve and the density of traffic that the bridge will normally support. However, even after laying the foundation stone for the second time, the bridge did not come up and the Government failed to solve the problem of the people.
A population of about 20,000 people is scattered over 36 island villages of Pargwal. The branches of administration for Khour tehsil are all located at Khour and the people of these islands have to travel a distance of about 50 kilometers to reach Khour. In case the bridge comes up, this distance will be reduced to just seven or eight kilometers. In 2008, the then Speaker of the Assembly and MLA from Khour laid the foundation stone at village Hamirpur Kona in Pargwal area joining it with Hamirpur Sidh in Khour tehsil. That was prior to the Assembly elections in the State. This place was hardly one and half kilometer from International Border (IB). We do not know why the authorities abandoned the construction of the bridge. Perhaps they did not find it feasible from security point of view to construct a bridge over the Chenab so close to the international border. The Army had objected to the construction of the bridge at that site. There could be other reasons also in which local interests played major role. Whatever the reason, the long an short of the episode is that no construction work has begun at any of the sites where foundations stones were laid.
One can imagine the hardship, which a population of twenty thousand people has to face day in and day out while running the chores of life. For any work in block, tehsil or SDM office at Khour people of Pargwal area have first to visit Suwa No 1 on Jammu Akhnoor road and then from there they have to board a bus for Khour. It is a circuitous and cumbersome journey, which consumes much time of the people concerned. On the face of it, we find something intriguing why the administration is lukewarm about bringing relief to a large number of people in providing them with a bridge.
However, the Chief Engineer R&B had a different story. According to his statement, the site where the then Speaker and MLA had laid the first foundation stone was inadvisable from security point of view and the army had raised objections. The second site upstream where the former Deputy Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone was technically inadvisable. Here the span of the river was large and the budget at the disposal of the Government was only 20 crore rupees. The construction of the bridge at the second site would have entailed expenditure of hundreds of crore of rupees. We learn that NABARD was supposed to construct the bridge.
The fact of the matter is that the entire issue has become complicated perhaps by half-hearted attempt of doing something in which there are practical difficulties. There seems no understanding among stakeholders viz. R&B department, state policy planning system, financial authorities, Army and the people concerned. All of them are pulling in different directions. The result is that the bridge could not come up. We would suggest that the government constitutes a committee with representatives from the Army, Revenue Department, Planning Department, Public Works Department, Finance and prominent personalities of Pargwal and Khour areas. Let them discuss all aspects of the issue and come to some common conclusion. The bottom line is that people in such a large numbers and in such physically precarious environs are not left to face the hardship of communication for all times.
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