Srinagar July 10: Breaking silence over the upcoming skewed bridge across Jhelum, civil society Tuesday expressed serious concern over the construction terming it “environmental disaster and attempt at destroying grandeur of the historic Bund” even as it asked the government to stop the work forthwith.

THE RESOLUTION
 Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies(KCSDS), a civil society group said: “It is yet another environmental disaster and attempt at destroying grandeur of the historical Bund.” “The members of the civil society called upon the government to stop work on the construction forthwith and totally abandon the project,” it added.
 The KCSDS with its chairperson Prof Hameeda Nayeem in chair held a meeting to discuss the matter and resolved that the construction would be fought tooth-and-nail.
 “The ill-conceived and badly designed bridge is going to imperil the existence of only green patch in the civil lines and deny breathing space in otherwise congested part of the City,” a handout of the KCSDS said.
 “Losing a larger chunk of already encroached Polo Ground to the construction of the bridge would be disastrous. Having largely failed to protect heritage of the state the government by allowing construction of this bridge will be fiddling with the architectural beauty of The Bund,” it added.
 “Many important milestone heritage buildings of nineteenth century including old Grindlays Bank will be endangered,” the civil society group said.
 The group questioned the wisdom of engineers who drafted the bridge proposal when it primarily violates the Srinagar Master Plan (2001-2021).
 “It seems that the ground work including feasibility study was done at some darkroom because the bridge fails to uphold the basics of engineering principles, safety norms and even the Master Plan than to talk of other issues,” the KCSDS people said.
 Others who attended the meeting include prominent industrialist Syed Shakil Qalandar, Dr Mubarak Ahmed, Abdul Majid Zaragar, Anwar Ashai, Arjmand Hussain Talib, Zareef Ahmed Zareef, Dr Javid Iqbal, Prof Quarat-ul-Ain and ZG Muhammad.
 The KCSDS “called upon the environment and heritage lovers and the Civil Society to rise to the occasion and protest against the construction of the ill-conceived bridge.”

THE PLAN
 The Roads and Building (R&B) department after approving the bridge proposal, has handed over the work worth around Rs 100 million to the Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation(JKPCC).
 The JKPCC started the bridge work from the Poloview side in May, where a ramp will be raised near the mega staircases leading to the General Post Office on The Bund.
 Across the Jhelum, which is some 100 meters wide, the bridge won’t go straight but take turns. First, downstream a right curve and then a left to get connected with the wide road on the Raj Bagh side popularly known as the Convent Road.
 The bridge work is scheduled to be completed within three years.

THE SKEWING
 Officials said the skewing would be required because the two bank sites, scheduled to be the bridge ends, don’t come face-to-face but are some 100 meters apart. But skewing, which is feared to be risky for driving, the upcoming bridge has already attracted a hilarious name: Teda Bridge!

BOTTOMLINE VIOLATION
 Though the bridge is coming up in violation of the Master Plan, the government has been saying that the contravention “wasn’t that big an issue”

Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST