Since the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has in her this year’s budget speech laid emphasis on building public infrastructure predominantly in roads, railways and education sectors, more spending on roads and education despite no major hike in this year’s budget allocation to Jammu & Kashmir could be a priority of J&K Government. While most of the roads in both urban and rural parts of Jammu & Kashmir are overdue for resurfacing, repairs and macadamisation, the buildings for most of the colleges upgraded in recent years are not nearing completion in both Kashmir Valley and Jammu divisions. While the completion of railway line from Banihal to Kashmir is expected to take few years more after missing many deadlines in recent years, the Banihal-Ramban track of Jammu-Srinagar highway known for it’s vulnerability to landslides and stone shooting during peak winter months of December, January and February is most unlikely to be completed in next two years. Knowing that better roads and rail connectivity holds key to fresh investments in industrial sectors ,the completion of road and rail tracks to Kashmir should be the priority in the budget allocation for public infrastructure in Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly the central government directly oversees both the rail and road projects presently under execution in Jammu & Kashmir for shortening the travel durations to Kashmir and as such onus for fast pacing work on two vital rail and road projects that would shorten the travel durations to Kashmir lies on National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Northern Railways. So while the onus of completing the incomplete works on roads and rail tracks that would connect Kashmir with rest of the Country lies on the Central Government, the onus of resurfacing, repairing and macadamising inter district routes lies on the J&K Government’s R&B department.
Unless and until the J&K R&B Department does not unfold a blue print for the completion of the incomplete public infrastructural projects the focus won’t remain on the upgradation of public infrastructural projects as promised by the Finance Minister in her this year’s budget speech.
Forget about the repairs of the inter-district roads even the arterial roads in most parts of Srinagar city have been left unrepaired and unmacadamised for years together. For completing the works of incomplete college buildings in short time it is for the Jammu & Kashmir Government to raise the budget allocation for completion of such College buildings and other facilities the works for which have been already taken up by the government in recent years. Unless and until the J&K R&B Department does not unfold a blue print for the completion of the incomplete public infrastructural projects the focus won’t remain on the upgradation of public infrastructural projects as promised by the Finance Minister in her this year’s budget speech.
