Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 25: The High Court has sought personal appearance of Court Commissioners, who had been appointed for inspection of condition of various roads and directed the authorities to report the Court about the condition of these roads.
In February this year, court had constituted teams of Commissioners in order to oversee and inspect the road conditions in the Valley and had sought report from them by next date in this regard.
Today when the matter was taken up, Court said that despite the clear directions, other than one Court Commissioner, the other Court Commissioners have not filed their reports. “All the Court Commissioners are directed to be present in court on the next date of hearing”, Division Bench of Chief Justice Badar Durez Ahmad and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey directed.
Court has sought status reports from the respondents with a rider that same shall be filed positively within four weeks time and re-notified the matter for further proceedings on August 30.
Hearing Public Interest Litigation on dilapidated and worsen condition of various roads in the Valley, the court had constituted 5 teams of Commissioners comprising at least two lawyers in each team for bringing the real position of roads before the court on next date of hearing.
Court had constituted three lawyers to oversee the road condition of National Highway from Qazigund to Srinagar which include Advocates G N Sofi, Ashiq Hussain and Rizwan Bhat, who were directed to visit the road accompanied by one official from M/s RAMKY Infrastructure Ltd (contract agency) and one from National Highway Authority of India to inspect the quality of road and sought report from the Commissioners by next date along with photographs of the said road.
The PIL filed by civil society of Tral area has sought directions for repairing the National Highway from Jammu to Srinagar especially from Banihal to Srinagar and Srinagar to Baramulla. It also sought directions to macadamize the existing old NH1A to make it fit for vehicular traffic to the minimum international and national standards level to the convenience of general public at large.
The petitioners also sought directions to the Government to constitute a team of experts to have physical spot inspection and conduct survey of NH1A and other link roads of Kashmir valley to assess the gravity of dilapidated condition of the roads and submit a detailed report with complete remedial suggestions in a time bound period.
Another road project which starts from Srinagar to Sonamarg, two lawyers namely Bhat Fayaz and Asif Ali were appointed as Commissioners of the said road and have been directed to inform the court about the upgradation of the said road project which is undertaken by NHAI.
Similarly from Bandipora to Sumbal which comes under Border Roads Organization, two lawyers namely Bhat Fayaz and N A Malik were appointed as Commissioners to oversee the said road with concerned officials and report the court about its actual condition.
With regard to Srinagar-Sopore road which according to representing lawyers is in a worse condition and makes very difficulty to the people who travel along the said road, advocate B A Zargar and Shafkat Nazir were appointed for the road to bring its actual condition before the court by filing report on next date.
Court was also informed that road from Awantipora to Tral is in dilapidated condition and in this regard two lawyers namely M Amin Khan and Shabir Ah Bhat were appointed to inspect the road and report the court. CE R&B submitted before the court that the up-gradation of the said road is taken into consideration in today’s meeting. Court had impressed upon the commissioners and concerned officers who accompany these teams during their visit to the respective roads, to work as one team and ensure the orders of the court are implemented.
Earlier the authorities like R&B, PWD and Beacon agency while holding each other responsible for the control of these roads as such court in this regard had directed the state counsel to collect information regarding these concerns and file latest status report within two weeks.
In May last year, the Roads and Building department had submitted that Government was yet to release Rs 550 crore it needs to restore the flood damaged roads in Valley. Today also CE submitted before the court that out of 8000 link roads 4000 roads have damaged due to devastating floods.
The then Chief Engineer R&B had also informed the court that 1696 km out of total 13898.37 km (single lane) roads were badly damaged due to 2014 floods and had submitted that restoration will cost about Rs 327.16 crore and none of it has been released.
The Chief Engineer had also submitted that his department had submitted to the Government a plan for permanent restoration and upgrading of 25.24 km of roads in cities and towns, which will cost Rs 385 crore.
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