Kulgam: The Roads and Building department has failed to upgradeq several roads under the Central Road Fund (CRF) scheme in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
An official said that the department was supposed to carry widening and macadamisation of some link roads to decrease the traffic flow via main roads.
However, he said even as black-topping has been carried partially on some roads but the process of widening has been shelved.
The roads which had to be upgraded included 11.5 km stretch connecting villages of Bogund, Supar, Kanipora, Sonigam, Srandoo, NanibugBugam, Srandoo, KulporaAashmuji, Bogund, Shogund and Nanibugh.
“The stretch had to be widened to 24 feet from the existing 12 feet with drainage and burp. But apart from serving notices to people for the vacation of a patch of land in their possession, nothing has been done,” an official said.
He said many people had even willfully vacated the land but the lack of commitment on part of R&B had stalled the work.
“The work on the stretch was started in 2017-2018 under the CRF scheme. So, by now the widening of the road should have been completed,” an official said.
He said that black-topping on 80 percent of the existing stretch has been carried though.
An official said widening, drain work, and walling of 18 km stretch of Munand-Alamgung-Daderkote-Tsansar-Kulgam road under CRF scheme started in the same year also had not been carried.
“Only 3 km has been black-topped so far,” he said.
“Very little work has been done on up-gradation of 13-km long Khudwani -Nawbal-Arwani road that includes drain work, walling and black-topping since 2017-18,” an official said
He said up-gradation work taken up in 2018-2019 on the 11-km Levdoora to Y K Pora-Nagras-Peertakya-Baitengoo including RazlooChittergamKund road is negligible.
Assistant Executive Engineer KulgamParvez Ahmad said 90 percent of Ashmuji-Bugam link road had been black-topped while it would be carried on other leftover stretches under the CRF scheme.
However, he confirmed that for now there were no plans of road widening.