Centre miserably failed to upkeep a small stretch of road connecting Jammu to Srinagar, NC

Srinagar: Alleging that Government of India (GoI) has miserably failed to upkeep a small stretch of national highway, the National Conference (NC) expressed dismay over the paucity of various essential amenities and the skyrocketing prices of house hold commodities in the state.
In a joint statement three senior leaders of NC Muhammad Akbar lone,Ali Muhammad Dar and Dr Bashir Veeri while expressing dismay over the inefficiency of the administration in ensuring smooth movement of traffic on Srinagar –Jammu highway said, “Even a sprinkle of rain detaches the valley with the rest of the country.
The GOI and the Governor administration with all their men and machinery have miserably failed to upkeep the small stretch of road connecting Jammu to Srinagar.  It seems that the government has given up before the vagaries of weather. At a time when world has embarked on the mission of easier intercontinental connectivity, our people in this part of the world still hanker of basic edibles during intermittent highway blockages.”
They said that there was no headway on other road projects connecting Jammu to Srinagar since 2014. “The need of the hour was to upgrade Mughal road so that it could act as parallel link to Kashmir with outside the world, but to our dismay nothing was done in this direction also.
They said the Governor administration and the former BJP-PDP government miserably failed to develop Mughal road as a viable alternative. The idea of having a tunnel on Mughal road was also brushed under the carpet,” they said.
“Due to frequent suspension of traffic on Jammu –Srinagar highway, vehicles had taken the route of Mughal road to reach Kashmir but there also the government has failed to ensure a steady movement of traffic.  Government has established only one checking point on Mughal road, which obviously is not enough to deal with the scope of work.  There also one sees a beeline of trucks and other light vehicles waiting for their turn to cross the check point,” they added.
They further added that the administration was slumbering and had shut its eyes and ears to the mounting woes of people in the wake of intermittent highway closures. “We take this opportunity and urge both GOI and the state administration to ensure steady vehicular movement on the sole highway connecting Srinagar to Jammu. It is expected of the government to upkeep the highways, and initiate time bound work on other routes connecting Kashmir to other parts of the country. The incumbent administration must established sufficient checking points on Mughal road in order to avoid unnecessary stranding of vehicles,” they said.