Srinagar, Dec 2: In what could be J&K’s biggest-ever investment to develop a major cultural asset in Kashmir seems to be moving at a snail’s pace as, despite the passage of around two years, the project is stuck in the technical formalities.
In February 2021, the Centre gave a go-ahead to the Rs 143 crore project of restoration, conservation, and reuse of the iconic Shergari heritage complex, but sources the official apathy has left the project lingering for the past two years.
Sources said that under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ programme, the Centre planned to execute various important projects including the ambitious project of restoration, conservation, and reuse of Shergari heritage complex under the Directorate of Archives, Archaeology, and Museums, which falls under the Department of Culture.
“J&K government was asked to submit a proposal for it, which they did. In February, the Centre informed the J&K government about the reception of their Rs 143 crore project. In late 2020, the restoration was discussed at a high-level National Implementation Committee (NIC) meeting chaired by the union mister in which the Shergari project was approved. This was communicated to the J&K government and that was asked to send the DPR so that the work will start with funding from the Centre. It is unfortunate that despite all the approvals, clearance, and tendering, the project is yet to start,” the source said.
Greater Kashmir accessed official communication related to the execution of the project between the J&K government and the Centre.
“Broad contours of the project have already been presented before the NIC headed by the Home Minister on November 25, 2020, and the NIC has given in-principle approval for the project under the broad umbrella of commemoration of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav,’” reads the communication.
An official source said that it took the concerned officials from Kashmir over a year to form an Expression of Interest (EoI) to invite the agencies that would finally qualify to execute the project.
“After much delay, the EoI was formulated, and tenders were floated and then retendered again in 2021. Finally, after multiple committees vetted the tender, Mumbai-based Dharashaw and Company qualified for the tender, but the project never moved beyond that,” the official said.
Greater Kashmir accessed various communications between the J&K government and the Dharashaw and Company about the latter qualifying the tender and directions to proceed forward with the following formalities.
In one of the communications, the Department of Archives also discussed the project rates.
The sources said that in a recent turn of events, as the company was about to start the project, they were caught up in another issue.
They had put some conditions, which were outside the tendered conditions.
They have put that payment will be done once the approval is granted to the project from the Centre.
Ironically, the approval has already been given.
“We fear the project was allotted under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and may be put in cold storage forever if not started on time. The project is hanging by a thread, and if it doesn’t succeed, Kashmir will lose its biggest investment in art and culture,” the sources said.
Assistant Director of Archives, Archaeology, and Museums, Srinagar, Mushtaq Ahmad Beigh told Greater Kashmir that the project had not started due to financial implications.
He said that the project was an ambitious one and they were doing everything to execute it without delay.
“The project will be taken up in the next financial year. We have completed most of the formalities and are already communicating with the Centre. We had already sent the DPR and other formalities are also completed.
The Centre is supposed to fund 80 percent of the project, and J&K government will contribute the remaining 20 percent. The project stands approved in principle at the central level. The project was supposed to be executed under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ but the paperwork was not completed during that period, and it will now be executed under the normal budget,” he said.
Interestingly, the officials expressed ignorance about tendering of the project and the Mumbai-based agency qualifying the tender. The officials said that as per the government circular they can not tender the project unless funds are available. The Shergari project will be the biggest-ever investment in Kashmir in art and culture.
Once the project will be complete, art lovers will have facilities like an art gallery, museum, auditorium, decorative art, theater, workshop spaces, and much more.
Having such an infrastructure has been a long-awaited dream of Kashmiri art and craft lovers.
The J&K government in early 2013 had started the project ‘Tehzeeb Mahal’ at TRC Srinagar with almost the same facilities as the Shergari project will have if completed.
In 2013, then chief minister Omar Abdullah even laid the foundation stone of the Rs 72 crore Tehzeeb Mahal.
Five years later, the chief minister Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government scraped the project.
“Kashmir is the hub of art and culture, but unfortunately, our dream to have such an infrastructure is yet to be fully filled. Renowned artists want to come here and hold their exhibitions, but the place lacks basic infrastructure. We had now pinned our hopes on the new project of Shergari, but it seems that the project is hanging by a thread due to official apathy and may meet the same fate as Tehzeeb Mahal,” said Auqib Ahmad, an art and craft expert.
Author Khalid Bashir Ahmad in one of his articles wrote that in 2013, when the then Secretary Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages invited the then Minister for Culture to the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Tehzeeb Mahal at Srinagar, the minister said, “At Srinagar…why not at Jammu?”
He wrote that the minister was then told that the Tehzeeb Mahal for Kashmir had been a long-pending project during which time Jammu had got the spacious Abhinav Theatre in 1978 and a major cultural center, Kala Kendra, in 2005.
The Kala Kendra, a central government project, was originally proposed for Srinagar and was then transferred to Jammu.
Interestingly, the six-decade-old Tagore Hall, a medium-sized auditorium, remains the only infrastructure for diverse cultural activities in an art and culture-rich Kashmir.