Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 20: The Jammu and Kashmir Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) has repeatedly failed to complete the construction work on Mehjoor Nagar Bridge on time and it has missed the second deadline and the way work is progressing it may miss the third deadline as well.
Satish Razdan, Director of J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA), told Excelsior that the Bridge was supposed to be ready by ending December but it may take two more months for completion. “The Mehjoor Nagar Bridge won’t be ready by the end of this year, it will take more than two months time to complete the construction work,” he said.
Razdan blamed the local contractor for delay in completion of the construction work on the bridge. “Due to the contractor, we are going to miss the first official deadline. Earlier in June this year, the contractor already missed the unofficial deadline”, he said.
“Due to the slow pace of work by the local contractor, we are all not able to meet December deadline,” he said, adding: “We have been repeatedly asking him to finish the work as early as possible.”
Razdan divulged that the contractor wasn’t serious enough to work on the bridge as he had some issues with the ERA. “We know that the work on the bridge is very slow and we aren’t meeting our own project requirements. We are trying to resolve the issues with the contractor so that the work on the bridge can be completed within the next two months,” he added.
Razdan revealed that the ERA was mulling to exert pressure on the contractor so that he would finish the work in stipulated time. “If the contractor won’t finish the work in two months, we would cancel his contract. We hope he mends his ways and completes the work as per the wishes of the ERA and locals of the area.”
The work on the bridge was started in 2015 as the old bridge got damaged in 2014 deluge. The bridge work was again halted last year after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.
The bridge will connect uptown areas of Lasjan, Padshahi-Bagh, Mehjoor Nagar, Naikpora and Nowgam with the main city areas.
Meanwhile, locals of the area are aghast over the slow pace of construction work and demanded that the pace of the work be expedited. Ghulam Mohammad, a resident of nearby Mehjoor Nagar area asserted that the pace at which the work on the bridge is going on, it looks like it would take years to compete. “We are suffering from last three years due to the careless approach of the authorities. We were promised by them that bridge would be completed in a year’s time but it’s been three years now,” he said.
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