Srinagar, Nov 19: How inconvenient it must have been for thousands of south City residents to bear with the situation arising out of slow work on the mega drainage project, which has missed deadlines by over three years?  Well, ask Union Minister for Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who hasn’t visited his Hyderpora residence for past two odd months since the day road leading to his house was dug up.
 Since September this year, Azad’s house was virtually cut off from the rest of the world as the stretch of highway, which connects to his, and other houses in the plush area, was dug up around 20 feet deep for laying of main drain under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Rs multi crore project.

FAR FROM HOME
 For Azad to visit his residence, he would have to walk a few hundred furlongs on foot albeit on an uneven terrain which had evolved along the sides of the dug up highway. And, the walk down the rough terrain wouldn’t be affordable for this high profile dignitary for reasons more than one:
 Firstly there was an obvious risk of slip. Second, there was no security clearance for such Padhyatra for a man under a Z-Plus security, who is escorted by a cavalcade of Jammers and country’s elite National Security Guard commandoes. “Area which is dug up can prove volatile…. So it’s avoided for any VIP visit,” said a police official.
FAR FROM SOCIAL GET-TOGETHERS
 Greater Kashmir learnt from family sources that all this has kept Azad away from his home and close relatives putting up in the vicinity.  “This is why for the past two months he even avoids visiting Kashmir,” said a source privy to the family.
 Leave apart other commitments, the former Chief Minister couldn’t even make it to attend religious function at his close relatives’ home, who also happen to be his next door neighbors. They hold a tradition of hosting Malouodh Sharief(religious feast), once or twice, annually.
 But at the recently held Maloudh Sharief, Azad’s absence remained conspicuous. “Everybody could make it that he (Azad) who otherwise used to be a regular face at such parties was absent because of road inaccessibility,” said a high profile guest who attended the feast but added in the same breath that he too faced difficulty in reaching the venue. “Had my PSO not done some handholding, I would have landed in the drain,” he confided.

THE DRAIN PROJECT
 Pertinently, the drainage project for the Athwajan –Parimpora highway belt of residential areas, started way back in 2006, under the Rs multi crore ADB program, was scheduled to be completed in 18 months. But some five years on, it’s still incomplete due to slow pace of work.
 Sources in the central government said the ADB was so fed up of the slow work that the project was feared to be abandoned. “But it was only because of the personal efforts of (present ERA Chairman and Advisor To Chief Minister) BB Vyas that the work got another extension and the project got back to the track,” the sources told Greater Kashmir on phone from New Delhi.

OFFICIALS SPEAK
 2011, as per the ERA officials, remained progressive for the projects including the Hyderpora drainage as a considerable portion of the project was completed comparatively speedily due to constant monitoring.

FORTUNATE NEIGHBORHOOD
 Unlike other colonies in Hyderpora where roads remained in shambles for years, the work on drain snaking along Azad’s residence is coming up speedily, comparatively three times fast.
 “There has been absolutely no delay. I can say it with confidence that we tripled the efforts to complete this patch of work but what takes time is that the entire road cannot be dug up it one go. Its has to be done in patches,” said a ERA engineer associated with the work requesting not to be named.
 For now the drainage work upto his house has almost been completed and stone dust is being laid to make it motorable at an earliest albeit on makeshift basis till the drain on the entire stretch half mile stretch is completed.

BOTTOMLINE
 Even though the drainage work along Azad’s house is being “managed speedily”, a worst of the delays in infrastructure development in the summer Capital, is a living reality exactly outside his house. The work on Hyderpora flyover, which started in 2006 during the regime of Azad’s predecessor Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, has already missed seven deadlines(each spanning six months). While one of the tubes has been thrown open for Traffic in September this year, the other incomplete portion faces the ongoing drainage work which kept the Union Minister away from his home!

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