Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 23: Peeved over the slip shod and extremely poor quality of construction work over Jammu-Srinagar National Highway particularly the Udhampur-Chenani stretch and the inordinate delay in its completion, a large number of youth led by senior AAP leader and former minister Harsh Dev Singh held a protest demonstration outside the office of Regional Director NHAI at Jammu today.
The protestors raised slogans against NHAI, Gammon India construction company, Ceigal Construction Company and other agencies responsible for poor quality works resulting in frequent damages, slips, erosions causing road blockades besides frequent accidents on the said Highway. The protestors demanded booking of the concerned officers and contractors on murder charges for the death of 10 labourers who were buried under a tunnel near Ramban recently and death of Mohd Rouf who collapsed on the highway near Samroli due to a huge boulder falling on him while he was commuting on motor bike from Chenani to Udhampur recently.
Speaking to media persons, Harsh Dev lamented that the Udhampur-Chenani stretch of the road was in complete disarray with around 100 meters of it having been washed away in a single day’s rainfall resulting in huge inconvenience to the commuters. The NHAI and executing agencies have failed to give any convincing logic for the inordinate delay of around 7 years in construction or completion of the 25 km stretch between Udhampur and Chenani, Singh said.
AAP leader regretted that even the Laddan-Seuna PWD road which provided an alternative route to some parts of Chenani had collapsed thereby cutting off Chenani from the rest of the world. He said there are frequent landslides with shooting stones hitting the vehicles plying on the road and creating huge risks for the commuters. There are huge traffic jams with vehicles remaining stranded for several hours each day. The Kashmir bound vehicles and other traffic to Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts and tourist traffic to Patnitop is also delayed by several hours due to the extremely pathetic condition of the road stretch.
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