Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Oct 20: The proposed ring road project in South Kashmir’s Kulgam is facing a shortage of funds for almost a decade now with an official saying that it is a huge project and involves land compensation and other modalities.
“It looks like the project has been shelved altogether, despite the district administration terming it vital,” a local Adil Ahmad said.
The single, narrow approach road to both District Hospital and the Fruit Mandi, has been a nightmare for the patients, particularly during the apple season and there seems to be no end in sight to these woes.
Another local Sajad Ahmad said that the District Hospital and the Fruit Mandi in Kulgam town are located opposite each other and were thrown open for the general public, more or less around the same time. “As the Mandi has grown with more and more farmers as well and traders getting dependent on it, the traffic to the Mandi has also grown substantially,” he said.
“You can see how hundreds of trucks enter and leave the Mandi, day in and day out throughout these months of the fruit season,” Ghulam Mohammad, a shopkeeper in the vicinity told Daily Excelsior
The fruit season commences around mid-June and stretches up to almost end of the year, making it a long grind from the people commuting to the district hospital.
The doctors, patients and locals who talked to Excelsior said that the trucks choke the already congested approach road to the hospital. “And even though it’s less than a half a kilometre road-from the Kulgam market to hospital-it often consumes half an hour or more to tread the distance,” a doctor at the Kulgam district hospital said.
He said that, often, patients who need immediate medical care lose precious minutes before they reach the hospital. “Because of the congestion on this road we have to often refer patients, who we could have treated here had they not lost the 15-20 minutes on this stretch,” he said.
The district administration taking note of the issue had, a few years back, proposed a ring road which would have translated into an alternate approach road for the fruit Mandi, leaving the existing road entirely for the hospital goers.
Deputy Commissioner Kulgam, Showkat Ahmad, said that there were no funds for the construction of this ring road. “It has been proposed but it is a huge project and involves land compensations and other modalities. For now, we have not received any funds for the ring road,” he said.
“Which essentially means that the people will continue to suffer, at least till this year’s fruit season concludes and maybe for years to come as well,” locals said.
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