The Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover missing the deadlines of completion one after the other would be perhaps now a distant dream for the people of Kashmir as the government is reported to have told the state high court that flyover would be now completed by June end year and with this the government has now sought nine months time for the completion of this dream project. Though two top PDP ministers recently took on the officials over their lackadaisical approach in completion of the project but even the attachment the Chief Executive ERA (Economic Reconstruction Agency) has not served any purpose so far. Keeping in view the slow pace of work the government has now set up June 2018 next deadline. On September 18, the Chief Executive Officer of the ERA Vinod Sharma was attached after a minister snubbed him during the meeting of the board of directors of the Agency over delay in construction of the flyover. The attachment of the Vinod Sharma for his failure in fast tracking the work on fly over would have been appreciated if the government would have given full fledged charge of the ERA Chief Executive independently to any senior officer having the track record of completing developmental projects in given time frame. Since the charge of ERA Chief Executive has been given to Rohit Kansal the incumbent Principal Secretary to Chief Minister already overburdened with the work of the Chief Minister’s officer’s office , a message has goes out that government has not attached Chief Executive ERA with the intent of giving the charge to someone else for fast tracking the work on the Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh fly over but with the intent of punishing him for some other reasons. The officers overseeing the work on Jahangir Chowk- Rambagh flyover blamed rightly the unrest for delay in the completion of the project last year but blaming law and order situation for the unprecedented delay in the completion of the project this year speaks volumes about the lackadaisical approach the concerned officials show in completion of this dream project of the Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition government.
Not the attachment of the previous Chief Executive ERA but assigning the job on a full time basis to a senior officer of the proven track record in the completion of mega developmental projects is the only viable option left for the government to fast track the work on this dream project.
The work on the flyover was started by the previous Omar Abdullah headed NC-Congress coalition government in the year 2013 but the devastating floods in September 2014 delayed the first deadline –September 2016 for its completion . Since pubic unrest in 2016 delayed the pace of work on all project and the construction of Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh fly over was not an exception but missing deadlines even for the completion of one small section of the project from Bakshi Stadium to Barzulla Bridged is an indication of the lackadaisical approach in completion of the project. Not the attachment of the previous Chief Executive ERA but assigning the job on a full time basis to a senior officer of the proven track record in the completion of mega developmental projects is the only viable option left for the government to fast track the work on this dream project.
