Srinagar-Jammu highway a death trap: PDP

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senior leader Naeem Akhtar today expressed concern over the frequent occurrence of fatal road accidents on Jammu- Srinagar highway, terming the 294 km road stretch nothing less than a death trap.

“The present dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir and thecentral government have miserably failed in performing their duties due towhich scores of people are being killed and the highway continues to remain adeath trap for the passengers,” Akhtar said in a statement.

   

He said, “The connectivity to Kashmir has unfortunately beenreduced to minimum requirement of keeping supplies for security forces only andthat civilian traffic, safety of passengers and everything else has gonehaywire.”

“The upgradation of National Highway (NH) doesn’t make anysense unless the portion between Ramban and Banihal is fully tunneled. Thiswill be an exercise in futility because it will always remain a fair whetherroad. Fair weather is not only now restricted to the days when it snows andrains during winters- it is spreading now all over the year as the mountainshave got further destabilized because of blasting and construction,” the PDPleader said.

He said, “There are modern solutions to it which theprevious government had projected to the central government and but the PDP ledgovernment at that time was informed that the project report in this is beingreviewed and reworked. However, the Governor administration failed to follow itup and with the result Kashmir is destined, perhaps, not to have an all-weather road and a decent highway that could connect the land locked regionwith the rest of the world.”

“The importance of this issue is lost as the government isturning its eyes away from it without any compunction. The sense of siege bothat internal as well as at the external level in Kashmir gets strengthenedthrough indifference of the government,” said Akhtar, adding that “It is ironicto find the Jawahar Tunnel on Srinagar Jammu highway in shambles even whenclaims of large scale development in the state have become rampant.”

The PDP leader said, “Even after 72 years after the stateacceded to the Union, people still wait for the all weather road.”

Akhtar said, “The PDP government had with the centralgovernment discussed in detail the need of tunneling between Ramban and Banihalsection so that vehicular movement on the highway remains uninterrupted andsmooth even during the inclement weather. Though the proposal was agreed by thecentral government but the present administration has failed to follow it up.”

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