Srinagar, July 20: With the government failing to construct an alternative to the “ill planned” Sanat Nagar square, the deadly site consumed another life Monday when teenager Anna Javed was crushed to death by a speeding truck.
 While Anna succumbed to injuries, her mother Tabassum who was accompanying this Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School student for tuition class was badly wounded. She is battling for life at SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura.
 Pertinently, at least three people have died in mishaps while scores have been injured around the square in the past six years ever since the Chowk was redeveloped like a maze under the Bypass widening project funded by the Centre.
 The “faulty design” has drawn flak from various quarters while successive regimes have miserably failed to come up with an alternative.
 Earlier this year, following years of complaints of mishaps at the suburb site, the Roads and Buildings department woke to the situation proposing construction of flyover to replace the “engineering disaster”.
 The government had submitted a proposal before the Planning department seeking financial help of around Rs 50 crore from the Central government.
 In the ongoing widening of the Athwajan-Parimpora Bypass stretch, on at a “snail’s pace for the past six odd years, the state’s R&B department had developed a square with multiple branches at Sanat Nagar intersection point.
 However, the design resulted in the maze like route system, where drivers often complain of getting confused in finding which way to go ahead. The menace is worsened by vehicles zooming at high speed on the six lane highway.
 “It’s very risky to drive at this point. By the time driver finds his route he is almost hit by another vehicle,” the locals have been complaining for years.
 Embarrassed, the government had called a high level meeting to discuss the matter.
 The R&B Minister GM Saroori who chaired the meet, in April this year, had confirmed that the Sanat Nagar square issue was discussed there.
 He said the government proposed construction of flyover at the site.
  “We are looking for financial help from the Central Government as we’ve proposed construction of flyover just like the one at Hyderpora square,” Saroori told Greater Kashmir.
 The Minister admitted that several complaints of mishaps at the Sanat Nagar square had come to his notice. “We have taken up the issue seriously,” the Minister had added.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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