Adil Lateef
Srinagar, June 14: After facing many hiccups and missing several deadlines since its inception six years ago, the prestigious four-laning project of Srinagar-Banihal patch on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway is set to be completed by the end of this year.
The work on the four lanning of Srinagar-Banihal stretch, also known as Srinagar-Banihal Expressway Limited, on the strategic National Highway that connects Kashmir valley with rest of the country started in year 2011. The project work was allotted to Hyderabad-based construction company Ramky Infrastructure by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The project was initially set to be completed in year 2014 but it missed its targeted deadline due to slow work pace.
Ramky vice-president, Ayaz Hussain told Excelsior that they are working towards major end activities and by year end, the work will be completed. “The project faced lots of hurdles. The major hurdles that were there include 2014 floods, 2016 unrest and bad weather which resulted in closure of National Highway and hampered supplies from Jammu,” he said, adding that the incomplete process of land acquisition at some places added to the hurdles they faced in completing the project.
The State High Court in year 2015 stepped in to ensure timely completion of the four-lanning of the Srinagar-Banihal project and ordered that “no reason or cause will be accepted in delaying the completion of the four-laning by 31 July, 2016”. However, the deadline set by the top court was also missed for which Ramky blames post-Burhan Wani encounter unrest in Kashmir for the delay.
“Due to unrest of 2016, we could not do anything. Our outstation labourers fled the Kashmir and it affected our work badly,” said Ayaz Hussain, adding that now they have hired local labour to avoid any kind of labour shortage in future. Following the unrest last year, the work on the project remained stalled for about four months. The work was started only after top officials of the State Government intervened and asked the Ramky to mobilize the work force.
A senior Government official while accusing Ramky of “lethargic approach” said: “We are seeing this project incomplete despite of the fact that it was being monitored directly by Centre. Look at the other side of Jawahar Tunnel where four-laning of Jammu-Udhampur Highway stands completed long back,” he said, adding that even Srinagar-Qazigund patch is incomplete so far. Pertinent to mention here that State Government has said that Srinagar-Qazigund patch would be completed by September this year.
The Ramky vice-president said that the substantial work on the project has been complete and remaining work would be completed by year end.. “We are moving ahead towards completion. We have certain issues at certain places in terms of land acquisition but hopefully by the end of 2017, we will be through,” Ayaz said.
With total cost of Rs 1103 crore, the length of Srinagar-Banihal roadway is 67.76 kilometers and it unlike Jammu-Udhampur or Banihal-Udhampur patches has no hilly terrain but despite of this the deadlines were missed for which Ramky has faced severe criticism. Once completed, the four-laning will help in overcoming traffic jams on National Highway and would reduce travel distance considerably to Banihal from Srinagar.
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