Islamabad (Anantnag), June 19: The authorities have left the work on Rs 26.5 Crore Achabal–Chattapal road up gradation project midway causing huge inconvenience to the people of this South Kashmir area.
 “The 22 Kilometer long road widening project aimed at bringing Chattapal, a scenic hill resort located 37 Kilometers away from this South Kashmir town, on the tourist map was approved by the central government in the year 2009 and handed over to PMGYS. Subsequently, tenders were invited and in June, the work was undertaken,” sources said.
 They said the project was to be completed by December 2010. “But after completing only 10 percent of the total work in 10 months, the project was left midway and till then there has been no progress on it.”
 “After assessing the slow progress of the work, the Chief Engineer, PMGYS decided to terminate the contract of the local firm, as it was liable under standard biding document laws according to which at least 40 percent of the work should have been completed in the ten months,” sources said.
 They said as PMGYS was about to go for fresh NITS (Notice Inviting Tenders), the contractor of the firm filed a writ petition in the High Court, following which the tendering was put on hold. “The High Court however, dismissed the writ petition and asked the firm to go for arbitration and the stay on the work was vacated,” sources said.
 They added that till now, the work on the up gradation of the project had not been resumed.
 When contacted, PMGYS, Executive Engineer, (Anantnag division), Santok Singh, said, “Soon after the High Court vacated the stay on the project, we immediately decided to go for fresh tenders. But the contractor of the firm has filed a fresh writ petition in district and sessions court, Islamabad (Anantnag) challenging his termination of tender, due to which we could not proceed further”. He said as soon the lower court gives its verdict, PMGYS would immediately take up the project.
 Meanwhile, the locals of the Shangus belt here have been complaining of immense hardships due to the dilapidated condition of the road.
 “The people of Shangus, Nowgam, Utersoo, Charipora, Chatergul, Sheikh Pora, Chaklipora as also from Chattapal resort had hoped that the up gradation of the road would open new economic opportunities and the tourism would get a boost, but now they are cursing the day, the project was undertaken,” said the residents.
 They said the bumpy, pot holed and dusty road which had been dug at several places had turned the lives of people miserable.
 “Due to the pathetic road condition, we are not able to make to our work places on time while the patients including expecting mothers suffer immensely,” the locals said.
 They said most of the people in the area were suffering from respiratory diseases due to the rising of dust following vehicular movement.
 “Before up gradation was undertaken it would take us barely 30 minutes from Chatergul to reach Achabal which is a mere 15 Kilometer distance, but now the same takes us more than three hours,” said a resident of Chatergul, Gulzar Ahmad Malik. The residents appealed to the authorities to immediately remove impediments into the project and provide relief to them.

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