It is saddening that the city that had inspired Francis Bernier first European to enter Kashmir in 1665 to write, ‘In truth, the  Kashmir surpasses in beauty all that my warmest imagination had anticipated” and Francis Younghusband to compare this land to Switzerland   is dying faster than one could imagine. It is dying not because of natural process as rightly pointed out at book release function in Kashmir University but because of lack of political vision, official apathy and bad governance. The city, counted before the departure of the British from the sub-continent as one amongst the best twenty cities of the Empire in terms of development of infrastructure is not now even comparable to   most backward cities in the tribal areas. For lack of development of infrastructure, the streets of Srinagar   having only 3.7 percent parking space for over two hundred thousand vehicles are most congested roads in Northern India. It is not only bad traffic management but also lack of planning   that has been contributing to the mess. Instead of widening roads the government for lack of planning has been has been constructing monsters on roads like the one in Lal Chowk. Constructing parks in the middle of roads speaks volumes about lack of imagination in our town planners and political executives. Surprisingly, one lane   of most of the double- lane-roads connecting different parts of city is clogged by the security forces or by the government agencies causing traffic congestion. Moreover, in many parts of city with wider roads only one third of the road is black topped, Chanapora Road could be glaring example. By all counts, the government in office despite its tall claims has been ignoring the development of Srinagar city. For managing the problems of Srinagar and meeting its requirements, the government has got master plans prepared a panel of experts at huge costs. But what is ironic that these plans were neither made public nor implemented. It is high time for the civil society to rise to the occasion to save Srinagar city from sinking further.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST