Suhail Bhat
Srinagar Nov 28: The two incomplete bridges are causing problems of commuting for thousands of people living across Jehlum at Sampora and Somerbug areas in the outskirts of Srinagar city.
The bridges-one of them a footbridge and another a 140-meter motorable bridge – would have connected several areas with the old national highway and reduced their travel time to a great extent.
The locals lamented that the construction work on a 140 meters bridge in Sampora area was stalled after a political leader, who wanted to score political points, visited their area. “The construction work was stopped a few days after his visit. We approached the authorities concerned but they have nothing to say,” Mohammad Ramzan, a local from Seerbagh said, adding some officials, however, hinted towards political interference in the construction work.
With an estimated cost of Rs 13.30 crores, the construction work on the bridge was started in 2017. So far, only half of the work is completed, forcing people to take longer routes to reach the district headquarters and the Srinagar- Jammu National Highway.
The locals demand that the work on the bridge should be expedited and it should be made mortarable at the earliest. “It is for the first time a bridge is being constructed near our village. We are facing grave difficulties due to the incomplete bridge and urge the authorities to complete its construction in a stipulated time,” Jana Akhter, a local said, adding in absence of the bridge the locals were forced to board fishing boats to cross the Jhelum river.
The locals told the Excelsior that bridge would have not only connected them to Srinagar- Jammu National Highway but also cut their travel time to the highway considerably. “The bridge would have reduced our travel time by an hour. Right now we either have to cross the river by boats or have to take longer routes, through Lasjan to reach the national highway and it takes us more than an hour to reach there,” Abdul Habib, a local of Sampora told Excelsior. He said that the villagers have been requesting the concerned authorities to speed up the work but to no avail.
The footbridge bridge which is constructed in the Panth Chowk area also faced frequent disruptions. “For the last two years there is no major development in the construction and its work gets disrupted every now and then,” a local Bashir Ahmad said, adding the residents have to rely on fishing boats in absence of the bridge.
A top official at the roads and buildings department said that Sampora bridge faced scarcity of funds and it might be put in languishing projects. “We will receive central funding if it is put under languishing projects,” he said, adding that the bridge was also a footbridge, to begin with, but on people’s insistence it was turned into a motorable bridge and that affected it’s funding.
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