With the offset of harsh winters, the Department of Roads & Buildings (R&B) has set priorities in attending to the deteriorating condition of roads in Srinagar city and peripheries. The road macadamization, pothole filling and addressing languishing projects are the precedence of the department.

In an exclusive interview with Rising Kashmir’s City Correspondent, IrfanA Mir, Chief Engineer PWD (R&B) Kashmir Er. ShaukatJeelaniPandit spoke on the volume of issues including maintenance of roads, funds availability and others.

The Department of Roads & Buildings (R&B) has started black topping of city roads and peripheries after harsh winters. What are the targets set out by the department and how much has been achieved so far?

First I would categorize the works as black topping of city roads, filling pothole areas and completing languishing projects upon which R&B is working on. Since we started the maintenance work in the ongoing year, we set a target of around 1000-kilometers in the first phase. As far as city roads black topping is concerned we have a roughly program for around 220-kilometers of the area in the city that was to be addressed. It is for your information that our 1-km means black topping of 12-feet width road. You know interior roads have been handed over to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) a few months ago and that would be overlooked by the SMC now onwards. The R&B is looking after main roads only. We had around 160-kms roughly in City and Towns (CnT) that needed to be attended. However, in the valley it is about 700-kms and as of now we have achieved 400-kms area while work on the rest of the portion is underway.

 

If we talk of the city there are many vital roads which are yet to be maintained by the R&B. What is the reason?

The main roads of the Srinagar city have been completed as of now excluding Hari Singh High Street (HSHS) and Dalgate to Boulevard crossing stretches. Besides in towns and other district headquarters the pace of work is in full swing. As far figures are concerned the department of R&B has achieved 595-km areas across the valley which is almost 40% of the set target by the department for the ongoing year.

 

City roads are divided now among R&B and SMC. People face immense trouble due to the bad condition of inner roads. When will these roads be repaired?

In November 2020, the Government of J&K Union Territory issued an order and assigned inner city roads to the SMC. In March this year the process of hand over and take over was done in between R&B and SMC. They too have forwarded their program to the Administrative Department for fund approval. They are done with surveying of inner roads and hopefully, will come up with tendering soon.

 

It is often said that continuous maintenance of roads becomes impossible because of the lack of funds. How far is this true?

There is no question of scarcity of funds. The Government released 100% funds for the last year’s approved works, while 50% funds have also been released for the current year's works. The released funds have been moved to subordinate offices also. So saying lack of funds in the department is far from reality.

 

City roads often turn into streams with few millimeters of precipitation. Why is the flush out mechanism not kept under consideration while repairing or maintaining these roads so that public exchequer would be saved from constant losses?

All of us know that the drainage issue is a long pending issue in the city. Our main roads are having the drainage mechanism in place. In some areas drains are completely choked while in few areas it works smoothly. It is a major concern across, particularly, in bottlenecked areas where road connectivity and sound drainage network is impossible to go together. Several sewerage networks have stopped functioning as people themselves choked them while throwing garbage and other solid waste material into. This way these drains do not cater to your rain water resulting in damage to the road surface obviously.

 

Where do you see the fault?

The Government is utilizing funds every year to ensure better road connectivity for people in which people in reciprocity should behave in a civilized way. Roads are public property and it should not be taken for granted. It is a social and civic responsibility of everyone among us, towards their respective area, to protect their roads from getting deteriorated. People have an important role in taking the development of roads to new heights.

 

Despite the passing of five-months, why R&B failed to restore and repair caved in portions of Dal Lake?

The portion caved into Dal Lake in the last week of February this year. Soon after the incident we issued tenders and started excavation. We found a sewerage pipeline beneath the road that needed to be relocated. We approached the Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) which estimated the job and issued tenders. The UEED is done with a test to sewerage pipeline and has completed its work a few days ago and we too accordingly taken up our job. Hopefully, R&B will likely restore the caved-in portion within a month’s time.

 

What is your message to people?

Whatever good is done should be appreciated from the people and matters into our notice should be brought with exact figures. The inner roads often witness issues while main roads are excluded.