While the commuters and pedestrians face lot of inconvenience due to digging up of various roads in Shopian district, it is also taking a toll on local business.
Local residents say that over past one month a privatetelecom company has been cutting the metalled roads in and around town to layan Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) which causes a whole host of problems to them.
“Due to the continuous digging, the streets arelittered with muck and it has become almost impossible to walk on suchstreets comfortably,” said Javaid Ahmad, a local resident.
Ahmad said that the roads in the town were burrowed almostthroughout the year to lay one or other utility line.
The Shopian-Ahrabal road where the digging is currentlyunderway has been causing much trouble to the commuters and also preventspeople from both within and outside Kashmir to visit the famed tourist spot viaShopian.
According to locals residents, a large portion of the narrowserpentine road lies under the soil and boulders, making it difficult for twovehicles to pass simultaneously which results in frequent traffic snarls.
“The road was already in a bad condition. The digginghas made it even worse and more prone toaccidents let alone the pesky traffic jams,” said Bilal Ahmad, a cabdriver.
A local business mantold Greater Kashmir that the business community always bore the brunt of suchthings.
He said that if the road was not repaired immediately, theywere bound to suffer losses as a whole tourist season would go down the drain.Official sources told Greater Kashmir that any agency intending to dig a roadfor the purpose of laying a utility line–electricity, telephone, water– hasto deposit the cost incurred on the subsequent repairment work with theconcerned department before taking up the work. However, they said that therewere no provisions to make up the loss that transporters or business communitysuffer due to the digging of roads.
“The big private enterprises are not even doinganything in such areas under the Corporate Social Responsibility,” theysaid.
A senior official atR&B subdivision, Shopian said that the tender for the repairment of theroad had already been issued.
“Once the telecom company completes its work, we willbegin the repairment work,” he added.