Srinagar, Mar 29: Government concern towards the public welfare and healthcare in this summer Capital could be gauged from the fact that all roads leading to Valley’s sole tertiary care hospital, the SK Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS), Soura are in shambles and drive down these dusty bumpy tracks is so risky that it can cost patient: life.
There are three major road links, which connect the SKIMS with rest of the City. But none of them is in a good condition while the administration has seemingly failed to take remedial measures at appropriate time.

THE PESKY LINKS
Dr Ali Jan Road and Hawal-Nowshera Road from south City side and Ahmad Nagar-Buchpora connects the hospital with north and other parts of the Valley.
But for the past few years, these roads have been left dilapidated. While at places they are “semi functional”, which means only one of the two lanes is operational making it more vulnerable to traffic jams, the others are typically bad.
And as if the inconvenience prevalent for the past two odd years wasn’t enough, the administration got Hawal-Nowshera road dug up for drainage construction.

DEADLY SLUMBER
According to medicos, bad conditions of roads leading to SKIMS Soura, badly hits the plight of patients being rushed there, particularly those who are in critical condition.
“Few minutes delay in getting treatment can result in fatal casualty of a patient and administration needs to wake up to this mess and get the roads repaired as soon as possible,” a doctor at SKIMS told Greater Kashmir.

HAWAL NOWSHEHRA MESS
The travel down the Hawal - Nowshera route is worst, even though it being a prime link to the SKIMS. The vehicular movement on this road has been halted for the past many months due to the drainage work currently going at Nalabal.
The traffic is being diverted through inner lanes of Nowshera, which consumes lot of time and equally causes inconvenience to the travellers. Apart from being narrow to cater to huge traffic rush, travel down these choked roads is troublesome due to the dusty-bumpy conditions.
“Travelling via Nowshera road has become nuisance as one has to pass through dusty bumpy small lanes,” Inaam ul Haq  , a local said.

DR ALI JAN ROAD TROUBLE
The Roads and Buildings (R&B) department had laid a deep drain along Dr Ali Jan road leaving one of the two tubes non-functional and has forgotten to undertake work on the other tube of the road.
To mention, this road is of critical importance because it’s the shortest link between the SMHS Hospital at Karan Nagar and the SKIMS. And even for that matter between the B&J Hospital and the SKIMS.

ROAD OUTSIDE SKIMS
Also, the road outside the tertiary care hospital is in a dilapidated condition for the past six months due to the alleged negligence of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) as they have not finished the laying of sewerage pipes on this road in time.
Half a kilometre road stretch from the SKIMS main entry gate to its maternity hospital is full of potholes.

OFFICIALS SPEAKS
When contacted, Chief Engineer Roads and Buildings (R&B) Mushtaq Ahmad Lone said the roads would be repaired once drainage work is completed. “We will start our work on road repairs, once NBCC completes the construction of drainage a nd laying of sewerage pipes.”
“Besides also we will have to wait for macadamization till the roads settle,” he added.
The NBCC in-charge, Rafiq Ahmad on the other hand said: “We are facing shortage of funds. We were promised by the State government that we will get the funds in advance but they did not fulfil their commitment and that has hampered our work. But we are putting our every effort to finish it as soon as possible.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST