Baramulla, Apr 5: The Shutloo-Binner road which was macadamised a year back has developed huge potholes. Its condition has deteriorated.
As per the locals, the work on the road was started several years back by the Department of R&B. Of the four km road, three km stretch was macadamised and the one km part was left without macadamisation. The department later started macadamisation of the left out one km road stretch last year.
However, the road condition of the one km road stretch soon after its macadamisation started deteriorating. The potholes emerged at several places and they get widened with each passing day. The bad road condition forced residents to avoid the route for their journey.
“The road condition is so bad that people have stopped to travel on the road,” said Tahir Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Shutloo- Rafiabad. “The administration should make the contractor accountable for the poor work he has done,” he added. The Shutloo area and several its adjacent villages are connected with Baramulla district headquarter through Baramulla-Handwara highway via Rohama village, which is around 17 km in length.
However, the Binner-Shutloo road shortens the distance by 10 kms which is a huge relief to local population.. “A motorable Shutloo-Binner road is a massive relief for the people of the area, especially the residents of Shutloo, Binner, Gujjar Top, and Rohama besides several other villages,” said Arif Hussain of Shutloo Rafiabad.
The Shutloo-Binner road which is an alternate route for the people of the area is often used for the transportation of apple as it shortens the Baramulla-Shutloo distanceby 10 kms.
“Scores of orchards are located all along the Binner-Shutloo road stretch. A motor-able road acts as a bypass for dozens of villages. The shortened distance besides better road connectivity will ensure that apple growers of the area will have an easy mode of transportation, which will slash the cost of transportation of apple boxes,” said Javed Ahmad, a local resident. “Besides, in case of an emergency, a patient can be shifted to Baramulla hospital for better health care facility from Rafiabad in less time and chances of saving the lives of critical patients will remain high as they can be shifted to the hospital immediately,” he added.