Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, June 3:The ambitious Srinagar Ring Road project is yet to begin its operations despite the passage of more than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it. The incapability of beginning the work in Srinagar is mainly being attributed to lack of pace in acquiring land.
What has further aggravated the situation is that the project has now developed additional costs in terms of rates for the land which is going to get involved in the project.
The officials said that the main hurdle is the land acquisition and the subsequent compensation for the same.
Regional Head, Jammu and Kashmir, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Hemraj Bhagat told Excelsior that to begin with the work they need at least 90 per cent of land accusation which has not been done so far.
“In order to begin with the work, we at least need 90 per cent of land, but so far we have not been given with a green signal to begin our work, which indicates that the administration is yet to complete the land acquisition for the project to kick-start,” he said.
Interestingly, as per the Project Manager J&K, Ghulam Qadir, the project has started developing additional costs of around Rs 13.5 crore when it comes to the land acquisition, the funds which the NHAI has sought from the Government in order to settle the things down.
“It now has additional costs of more than 13 crore rupees, which entirely goes for the land acquisition-the viability will also be looked into as civil cost itself is Rs 900 crore,” Ghulam Qadir told Excelsior.
“The Chairman NHAI has recently written to the Chief Secretary regarding the funds and due to elections the matter could not be followed up; let’s see what happens now as the authority is waiting for a reply from the Government,” he added.
As per Public Works (R&B) document, approximately 12450 kanals and 14 marlas of land is to be acquired for construction of Semi Ring Roads around Jammu and Srinagar Cities, out of which 10911 kanals and 13 marlas are agricultural land.
In Srinagar, the breakup further tells that, in South Kashmir’s Pulwama, there are 379 kanals of land that is to be involved in the Ring Road and the entire land is agricultural in nature.
In Budgam, 4500 kanals of land is going to be involved in the project, out of which 3661 kanals is that of agricultural in nature. In Srinagar, there is 423 kanals of land involved, out of which 202 kanals are that of agricultural in nature.
The Ring Road is going to involve total 5995 kanals of land out of which 78 per cent which is 4730 is the land agricultural in nature. Moreover, the total number of farmers that are going to be affected while the project passes through Srinagar is 7412, with Budgam topping the list, where a total number of 6274 farmers are going to be affected.
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