Roads are of prime importance for people in both rural and as well as urban areas as better roads ease the travel of people to hospitals, schools, government offices and the trade centres anywhere in the world and same holds good for the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Roads are not important only for travel of people to public facility centres like schools, hospitals, government offices, markets and the likes but also for reducing the road accident deaths rising year after year in Jammu & Kashmir like many other states and union territories of the country. Even better regulation of traffic and toughest procedures for grant of driving licenses by the traffic police department and driving license authorities of the transport department respectively has not reduced the intensity of road accident deaths increasing unprecedentedly year after year. Though under the PMGSY (Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna) the PMGSY wing of R&B department has been established by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir long back for overseeing the construction, development and maintenance of rural roads connecting villages with towns and cities in Jammu & Kashmir many years ago, but the roads are not developed, maintained and upgraded to the entire satisfaction of the rural populations in Jammu & Kashmir like other states and union territories of the country. Though contractors have to bear the costs of the resurfacing and repairs of the roads constructed by them for the first three years as per the standing guidelines of Public Works (R&B) Department but roads are often damaged by the snow clearance machines used for clearing snow from roads during winter in Kashmir and some parts of Jammu division including upper reaches of Chenab valley and Pir Panchal areas. This is also an irrefutable fact that most of the road accident deaths are reported from the hilly areas because of the bad condition of roads in upper reaches and as such upgradation , development and maintenance of such roads has to be a priority for preventing road accident deaths in higher reaches.
Unless and until the roads are not maintained and developed upto the standards ,the issues of public connectivity with the public facility centres and unprecedented rise in road accident deaths won’t stop occurring and reoccurring in rural areas particularly the upper reaches of both Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. So better roads have to be a priority as they are in other states and union territories of the country.
While PMGSY has to focus on the development and maintenance of rural roads particularly those connecting upper reaches with the main towns and similarly the R&B department looking after the development and maintenance of roads in urban parts of Jammu & Kashmir has to ensure resurfacing and repairing of roads for easing the travel of people to public facility centres like schools, hospitals, government offices, markets and the likes. Unless and until the roads are not maintained and developed upto the standards ,the issues of public connectivity with the public facility centres and unprecedented rise in road accident deaths won’t stop occurring and reoccurring in rural areas particularly the upper reaches of both Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. So better roads have to be a priority as they are in other states and union territories of the country.
