About 42 percent of roads, which estimate to about 14,779 kilometers of length, need repairs and blacktopping in Jammu and Kashmir leaving a question mark over the claims of development by the successive regimes in the state.
As per the official data, J&K has a total road length of 35,289 km, of which 28,393 kilometers are constructed and maintained by the state’s roads and buildings (R&B) department and remaining 6,896 kilometers are under the centrally sponsored schemes such as PMGSY.
The official data reveals that only 58 percent of the road length i.e., 20,510 km has been blacktopped while as remaining 42 percent i.e., 14,779 roads require blacktopping and repairs and are still under various stages of development.
The total road length in J&K has increased by over 80 percent in last one decade. The roads maintained by the R&B department have increased from 18,368 km in 2007-08 to 28,393 km during 2016-17, however, the existing road network in the capital cities and other towns are dilapidated and demand immediate attention.
The total road length in Kashmir is 14,803 km, 15,920 km in Jammu province, 3,202 km in Leh district and 1,364 km in Kargil district.
A senior public works department official pointed out various reasons for poor condition of roads. “Firstly road length has increased considerably in a decade, which means roads which have been constructed needs repairs after every four years. But what is happening that due to poor quality of works, roads are deteriorating within a year or two which puts extra burden on the government.”
“Secondly, due to paucity of funds, government cannot afford to spend major portion of its budget on roads. As ours is a state heavily dependent on financial assistance from centre, we have to make allocations wisely keeping in mind that salaries and pensions eats up our 48 percent of the budget annually,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir has constructed only 601 km road length out of 2800 km targeted under flagship Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Besides, the maintenance of 20 percent of the roads has been found unsatisfactory which has prompted Union secretary for rural development department Amarjeet Sinha to shot a communiqué to the state government expressing “serious concern over the pace of work”.
The strong-worded communiqué addressed to chief secretary J&K, reads, “The slow pace of construction by state is much below the national average and is a cause for serious concern. For the next seven months, the state would require to construct roads at an average rate of 10 km per day.”
Chairman, Jammu and Kashmir Contractors Coordination Committee, Ghulam Jeelani Purza said that construction of roads and its maintenance is the least priority of the government. “Authorities have even failed to release our pending bills, leave aside further allocation of funds for the development of roads in the state.”