Sir,
This is in context with the article titled ‘On Verges of Collapse : Batote-Kishtwar Highway’ in Sunday magazine of DE dated 29 Nov 2015, in which GREF has been blamed for collapse of the road. While Project Beacon appreciates the concern of the author, Batote Kishtwar highway was with GREF till as late as Dec 2014, and no incident of the said deterioration was observed. Hence, it would be prudent to mention that the basic cause of deterioration was not widening but ‘lack of maintenance’.
It will not be out of context to mention that widening on the following roads as on date is being carried out/completed in the area of responsibility of Project Beacon :-
(a) Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri.
(b) Srinagar-Kupwara-Chowkibal.
(c) Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri.
(d) Uri-Salamabad-Kaman Post.
No such deterioration due to widening has been observed on the above roads till date.
Looking back at history, the hill slopes at Assar (Km 20.80 on NH-244) and Korapani (Km 28.55 on NH-244) gave serious problem in year 2008. GSI studies revealed that the major cause of destabilization of hill is due to ponding in River Chenab due to the Bagliar reservoir, since there was no viable and permanent solution to address the destabilized terrain, GSI has finally suggested to resort to either construction of tunnel avoiding the area or development of 78 Km long alternate alignment from Chenani (Km 89 on NH 204) to Khelani (Km 45 on NH 244) via Sudhmahadev and Goha.
In order to carry out widening, cutting of the hillock is a necessity. Occurrence of landslides from the newly formed hill faces is a common phenomenon in the young Himalayan region and it takes few years to stabilize after gaining the natural slope. It is a well known fact that the complete J&K region witnessed unprecedented and heavy rain fall in 2014 and 2015, due to the saturation and shear failure, the hillocks became unstable and started sliding, which is a common feature in hill roads.
Yours etc…
HQCE (P) Beacon
C/o 56 APO
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