A project conceived 15 years ago with great hopes and hype , as on date, is virtually a waif and even a foundling as different departments push its “ownership” to one another resulting in the project being declared neither dead nor abandoned and not even with a glimmer of hope of any future revival. What for was then; a sprawling 378 kanals of land identified and even earmarked for it in South Kashmir’s Pampore town is hard to comprehend.
Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation which was entrusted with the job of executing the project is, now, no longer with them because it was starved of funds which it needed from time to time resulting in the Corporation disburdening itself of the project. How funny but strange does it look that the much hyped project kept on getting tossed between one department to the other all these years by which time, it should otherwise have been functional and contributing towards the desired end.
The question reverts to the same principle that a project could only be made public in having been sanctioned when it was backed with budgeted or allocated funds. There was no fun in subjecting projects to a fate of the likes of the International Trade Centre at Pampore. Could the project be revived so that famous and attractive items of arts, crafts, papiermache, wood carving , willow work etc and agricultural products like saffron, almonds, walnuts and the like could be given an exposure at national and international levels and marketed under one roof and traders from across the country and other countries could come here to the benefit of the local traders who otherwise have to do it in conventional ways.
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