Government sources and policy planners have begun to focus attention on Chenab Valley region of J&K State only recently. For most of the post-independence period, this region, remaining as an appendix to Jammu region, did not qualify for special parameters of development in their eyes. In that sense, its development was not given the importance it deserved.
The mountains of the entire region through which the Chenab flows and which form the sub-Himalayas, are tectonically active and structurally complex. These are prone to seismic effect and vulnerable to disastrous landslides that change the topography so often. With this ground situation, cutting out roads into the mountains to establish connectivity without having made geologically standardized study of the mountains, their composition, construction, water retention capacity, quality of soil and land stability etc. has resulted in the loss of human lives and properties to unimaginable magnitude. This should have been the preliminary exercise when development of the Chenab valley was taken up for practical implementation.
These mountains, whose foothills and recesses people of the region generally inhabit, are prone to land and mud slides of immense volume which wash away the roads and block traffic along the ill-planned roads. The disastrous impact is unimaginable. Its adverse impact is to be seen foremost on the economy. The region is destined to remain poor and backward. There are some identified hot-spots of landslides and these are uncontrollable notwithstanding the more improvised means of road repair and road building that might be at our command today. With advanced technology provided by modern researches, it is possible to a good extent to predict the occurrence of a landslide in a particular region. With this portion of scientific and technological knowledge at our disposal, it should be possible for geological engineers to identify the regions that need to be avoided for the purpose of construction of safe roads. Just construction of roads in this landslide prone region is not enough. Maintenance of these roads is of equal importance because of uncertain physical and climatic conditions. Therefore, the road building in these regions is a two-fold task, viz. building the roads and maintaining the roads. Some of the notorious hot-spots of landslides like Nashri, Panthial, Kaura-Pani and recently Khairi, Raggi-nallah, Assar, Drudhu will need special treatment. A tunnel has been dug between Chenani and Nashri under the 4-laning programme of the Jammu – Srinagar National Highway just because this was the most vulnerable spot for landslides and often caused road blocks. This type of study and treatment of other hot-spots of landslides between Batote and Doda shall have to be taken into account. Not only that, alternative connectivity has also to be studied and experimented.
It is, therefore, important that the State Government in consultation with the Central Government forms a team of high experts in geological, engineering, road building, and other fields to undertake comprehensive geographical, geological, topographical and seismic study of the area and draw final conclusions that could be useful in determining the building of roads for connectivity.
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