Baramulla, Apr 18: Despite spending lakhs of rupees each year on repair and macadamisation of roads in upper reaches of Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, most of the roads there present pathetic condition.
In Gharkote Uri, the department of R&B, constructed a protection wall just six month’s back at Bilal Abad, however, the protection wall collapsed few months after its construction. The locals here believe that had there been accountability in place, the executing agency could been held responsible.
“The administration must fix responsibility on the executing agency. The inferior material used in protection wall construction caused it to crumble suddenly,” said Ashiq Hussain, a local resident.
In the same area of Gharkote, over a newly macadamised road, grass has grown at different road stretches. The locals here claim that due to inferior use of material during macadamisation process, the road condition deteriorated which can be reflected with the fact that gross has grown at several stretches on this road.
“During the road macadamisation, the inferior use of material has caused asphalting cleanup at many places. The contractor responsible for using poor quality material should be held responsible so that people of the area are not subjected to frequent hardships following deteriorating road condition,” said Muhammad Ashraf, resident of the area.
Another newly upgraded road, Boniyar to Maidanan, which is around 9 km in length was macadamised by the department of PMGSY last year. However, after one year of macadamisation the road condition has deteriorated with the result the entire population of over 20 villages are up in arms against the executing agency.
The locals here said that after striving for several years for the macadamisation of the road, the authorities finally initiated the macadamisation process last year. They said people of around 20 villages located all along the road stretch were upbeat over the initiation of the work, however, their their joy turned short lived after the road condition start deteriorating.