Jammu, May 04: Apart from Tourism sector the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has been focusing on the all weather road connectivity in the state so that the state is run smoothly during winter season and people remain connected throughout the year.
The idea is a welcome step and needs appreciation but then people also remember how such goody-goody ideas were sold by the Omar Abdullah government during its tenure which however is yet to be implemented.
It was with much fanfare that the earlier government had visualized the alternate usage of historic Mughal Road when a car rally was flagged off by the chief minister Omar Abdullah and later he himself took a drive along the road besides the regular national highway. But the events remained confined to the twitter uploading while the work progressed on a snail’s pace for the entire tenure sometimes blaming it on BRO and the other times financial crunch.
Now the new CM has also prioritized the road connectivity for which he has been taking up the matter with the central government and Border Roads organization (BRO) managing the national highways and other roads in J&K.
The new government had mooted the idea of wider Mughal Road and all weather Jammu-Srinagar national highway asking BRO for its round the year maintenance to help tourism sector and general connectivity within the regions.
The government had also mooted the idea of Rs 3000 cr ring road projects for Jammu and Srinagar cities on the pattern of Delhi ring road and had been pursuing the same vigorously with the central government.
Mufti also met Nitin Gadkari Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and on his instance Lt. Gen. R. M. Mittal, Director General, Border Roads Organization (BRO) also called on him and assured his help.
At the same time the government is also proposing to improve and maintain the internal road connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir like Thanamandi-Buffliaz sector, Kupwara and Baramulla, Sopore Bypass Bridge, Parimpora-Narbal road, Srinagar-Qazigund stretch of the highway, Chenani-Sudhmahadev-Khelani-Doda road, Kud, Batote stretch, Khelani and Pul Doda, Khanabal-Pahalgam Road and Batote-Kishtwar-Sinthan Road (Old NH 1-B)etc.
While BRO has assured of its help in improving and maintaining the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway it has not yet given full assurance of Mughal Road.
At the same time the centre is yet to agree even to the 90:10 partnership of its ring road project and had recently refused to pay hundred percent for the land acquisition for the ring road projects.
Under such circumstance it needs to be seen when Mughal road becomes the alternate highway for the state and Jammu-Srinagar national highway becomes the all weather road, as the state which is already under huge financial crunch needs the crutches of the central government, which may not be so generous to fund all its projects when the states project implementation, execution and transparency has a big question mark.
The ideas that the CM has been conceiving are worth appreciation but the fact remains that it is the implementation on ground that matters for the common man on street and having seen the fate of such promises the common man has many doubts over the tall promises of development being made to him.
Under these circumstances the common man wants the new government to act fast and act tough with the lethargic state administration by making it active, transparent and accountable and remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks by clearing the projects on fast track basis besides not getting bogged down by political opponents who have been acting truant with such central projects sending a wrong message to the union government.
The opposition of the National Conference to Ban Toll Plaza is the latest case in hand which has not gone down well with the central agencies with none other than the Prime Minister himself asking Mufti to make such projects economically viable and allow Toll plazas to function so that (Public Private Partnership)PPP brings development to J&K instead of discouraging other agencies from taking up the bigger projects here, which can bring large scale development in the state, but at the same time they need the returns which the state government must assure them.
The government will do itself and the people of this state a big favour if it pulls up its socks and stops getting bogged down by political rhetoric which comes in the way for the development so that the rosy picture that this government has painted of the future becomes a reality.