Anantnag: Known for its gushing springs and long history of existence, this south Kashmir town is spreading in every direction as there is no Master Plan to guide the construction spree.
The haphazard and illegal constructions happen under the nose of the authorities, who witness all this as mute spectators.
The town, once bedecked with vast open spaces, has off late lost its sheen due to the official apathy and, also, partly due to vested interests who take advantage of the absence of a Master Plan for the town.
“It is an irony that the town, largest in area and population, is without any Master Plan,” said an official. He said the proposal to frame a concrete Master Plan for the town had been gathering dust for years now.
“An in-house draft master plan was prepared in the year 2014 but was cancelled as it was not up to the mark,” an official said
“In March 2017, following the directions of the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD), the Town Planning of Kashmir (TPOK) hired three professionals on a contractual basis for 12 months for the preparation of the master plan. Later, in 2020, a consultancy – MS Institute for Spatial Planning and Environment Research (ISPER), Panchkula, Haryana was asked to take up further preparation of He Master Plan under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urbanisation Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. However, two years on there has been no progress on it,” he said.
An official cited the paucity of funds as the reason.
“Once the funds are released, the consultancy will turn up for presentation and sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after which a letter of award for the contract will be allotted to it,” he said.
Another official said that the authorities had for long shown callousness in coming up with a Master Plan to prevent the haphazard constructions and de-congest the town, which has turned into an urban slum.
“Even buildings have come up on streams, spring outlets, irrigation canals, and flood channels. These water bodies have either vanished altogether or have been reduced to drains and cesspools as residential houses, shops, and toilets have been raised all over them,” he said.
The official said that these include Aaripat stream, Ladi-Laizbal irrigation canal, flood channels passing through Anchidora, Chee, and Qazibagh, Nagbal spring outlets at Mattan Chowk and Dangerpora, and Gajinag springs at Kadipora.
“There is no plan of decongesting the town with narrow streets and squeezed lanes in the old town resulting in frequent traffic jams leaving no space for pedestrians to move,” an official said.
He said most of the roads – Cheeni-Chowk-Malakhnag-Sherpora, Janglat mandi-Sherpora-Doonipawa, Cheeni Chowk-Janglat Mandi, Mattan Chowk-Dangerpora, Sherbagh-Reeshi Bazar road, and Kadipora-Sarnal road are so narrow that hardly a single vehicle can pass through at a time.
Even the pedestrians find it is difficult to walk along.
“Certain areas along Khanabal-Pahalgam (KP) road and Khanabal- Mehandi Kadal road should be declared non-permissible (green zones) for any commercial or residential structures, but instead, haphazard constructions are thriving there,” an official said.
“There has been a rapid urban shift from rural areas and with its centrality in entire south Kashmir, the density of the town has reached as high as 1200 per sq km,” he said.
Another official said that new residential colonies should be established to overcome the problem of congestion in the old town.
“The government had already designated plots at high ground for Fatehgarh residential colony prior to 1990s but that was unfortunately shelved after the Army established their camp on an orchard and state land there,” he said.
An official said that the government should now reconsider the proposal to overcome the problem of congestion.
“If the government is serious in stopping further conversion of agricultural land in adjacent villages of the town, then it should designate planned colonies,” he said.
An official said that residential colonies which have come up during the last two decades on KP road and Achajipora- Moominabad are without proper planning, drainage system, and lanes.
“The encroachment on water bodies compounded by poor drainage system was one of the major causes of submerging of the town during rainy reasons,” he said.
Locals also said that the land available at the high ground could be availed for establishing cricket stadiums and technical colleges.
“The land available at the high ground can be used to build sports infrastructure and establish technical colleges,” said Kausar Majeed, a resident.
He said that the Master Plan should be designated for the town and the green environs, sericulture land, and Karevas at Sarnal hilllock should be preserved and declared green belt.
“The area has a huge tourism potential provided it is taped,” Majeed said. “Any sort of construction in the area should be discouraged.”
Chief Town Planner Iftikar Hakim said a consultancy would start work on the preparation of the Master Plan, once they get funds from the government.