The government has resumed work on construction of a road connecting Angan Patri in Poonch and Gulmarg in the Kashmir valley, spreading happiness among the people of Mandi.
About 27 kilometers of the 44-kilometer road stretch betweenSaujiyan and Neriyan stand completed, while the 17 kilometer stretch hasawaited completion for years.
The army’s General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) resumedwork on the stretch on Saturday.
Right now, the Mughal Road between Poonch’s SurankoteBufliyaz and Kashmir’s Shopian is acting as a main direct road connectionbetween Pir Panjal and Kashmir valley whereas a 46 kilometres long road fromLoran Poonch to Tangmarg is already under construction since 2015.
Work on the Angan Patri-Gulmarg road was started in 2014.
Land acquisition, forest clearance and some land disputesled to delay in resumption of work, say residents of the area looking forwardits benefits once completed and opened for traffic.
Tehsildar Mandi, Javed Iqbal told GKNN that due to someissues of acquisition of land owned by the locals and transferring the same tothe road construction company, the work was delayed and remain suspended allthis while.
Iqbal said that now papers of land acquisition andcompensation have been forwarded to assistant collector acquisition (assistantcommissioner defense) and compensation for the acquired land would be releasedsoon.