Gen R S Reen
The Cabinet reshuffle must bring a three-year delivery compact for J&K’s gateway towns: better roads, functioning hospitals and development that reaches beyond the seats of power.
The first question should be simple: what will this team deliver, where, by when, and who will answer for it? We need a published roadmap connecting ministerial responsibility to district plans, funded projects and measurable public services. Without that connection, fresh faces can quickly become trapped in the same old routines.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Union Territory arrangement makes this coordination especially important. An elected government, the Lieutenant Governor and Union agencies have significant, sometimes overlapping responsibilities. A resident seeking a road, a hospital service or a land decision should not have to discover those distinctions through repeated visits. The two pillars of governance must support one delivery framework.
My immediate concern is with two towns through which many people form their first or last impression of Jammu and Kashmir: Kathua and Baramulla. One receives visitors entering from Punjab; the other stands on the journey towards Uri and the Line of Control. Both deserve to be recognised as places where people live and work, not merely points on a transit map.
The lifeline and the last mile
For generations, the road journey from Lakhanpur towards Uri has represented the principal road lifeline of the region. Much has changed, and that progress deserves acknowledgement. Tunnels, bypasses and wider carriageways have transformed several stretches. Yet anyone travelling through unfinished sections or congested town centres understands why the public remains impatient.
Successive governments have promised better connectivity, and citizens are entitled to ask why essential sections have taken so long. The answer cannot simply be difficult terrain. Mountain engineering demands expertise, but prolonged uncertainty also reflects the need for clearer priorities, timely decisions and coordinated execution. Every revised deadline should therefore come with an explanation, not another slogan.
We should also be precise. Lakhanpur–Uri is a journey involving different roads and projects, not a single expressway with one uniform standard. The Union Road ministry’s 2024 review listed five packages for upgrading the 161-kilometre Srinagar–Baramulla–Uri stretch of NH-1. That is important, but it must not be confused with completing an access-controlled expressway all the way from Lakhanpur.
The objective should be a dependable, safe journey rather than an attractive label. Some sections require four-laning; others need reliable two-lane capacity, paved shoulders, slope stabilisation, drainage and enforced roadside discipline. Bypasses must work with local streets, not simply push traffic into another bottleneck.
The completion of the 272-kilometre Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla Rail Link in 2025 has also changed the conversation. The highway is no longer the only modern connection between Kashmir and the rest of India. Nevertheless, railway stations still need functioning roads, freight still needs last-mile access, and families still travel by road. Connectivity must be planned as a network, not as competing departmental trophies.
Kathua: move beyond the tea stop
At the Punjab entrance, the contrast is instructive. Around Madhopur and beyond, visitors encounter a roadside economy in which agriculture, food services, landscaping and organised parking reinforce one another. Whether or not one describes a food court as European, the underlying lesson is about design, hygiene, choice and maintenance.
On our side, the experience too often begins with an assortment of dhabas, informal parking and inadequate public conveniences. This is not an argument against dhabas. They support families, preserve local food traditions and provide affordable meals. It is an argument for helping them improve rather than replacing them with facilities that exclude local enterprise.
Kathua should offer clean rest areas, accessible toilets, reliable drinking water, safe pedestrian movement, transparent prices and space for local produce and crafts. Farmers, transporters, small manufacturers and tourism workers should be able to benefit from the traffic passing through their district. Agricultural displays and market links would say more about a productive economy than decorative frontages alone.
Nor should the comparison with Punjab become a contest in appearances. Its real value lies in connecting productive agriculture to consumers. Kathua can build similar links through collection points, cold-chain facilities, hygienic processing and outlets operated by local farmers and entrepreneurs. A visitor should be able to buy something genuinely produced in the district, while a producer should gain a market rather than merely watch vehicles pass.
The approximately ten kilometres between Hiranagar and Lakhanpur could become a demonstration corridor. This is a proposal, not a description of an approved project. Its quality should be judged by safe junctions, continuous drainage, organised access to businesses, street lighting where appropriate and dependable maintenance. Pilgrims travelling for Mata Vaishno Devi darshan deserve a welcoming introduction to Jammu and Kashmir, not an obstacle course.
Baramulla: a town, not a bottleneck
Baramulla presents a different challenge. Its linear settlement pattern concentrates movement along a limited road corridor. Traffic, commerce and residential life compete for the same space. Construction close to the highway and disputed or obstructed access can make even worthwhile improvements difficult to execute. These problems require survey-based planning and due process, not sweeping accusations against residents.
Traffic management must begin with the way the town actually functions. Deliveries need designated hours and loading bays; schools need safe arrival arrangements; buses need stopping places away from narrow junctions. Parking should be managed as a public service, with fees and enforcement that residents understand. Continuous footpaths are particularly important for older people, children and patients reaching the hospital.
Concerns about land for public facilities, including hospital expansion, require the same discipline. Authorities should identify the relevant survey numbers, establish title and permissible use, hear affected occupants and publish a lawful resolution. If encroachment is established, action must follow due process. If occupation is lawful, redevelopment cannot proceed by treating people as obstacles. Neither confrontation nor indefinite inaction is a planning strategy.
A visitor proceeding towards Uri should encounter a confident, well-serviced town with a recognisable centre, readable signs, disciplined parking and usable public spaces. Baramulla’s heritage and landscape are assets. So are its markets. Development should make them accessible without allowing through-traffic to destroy the town’s everyday life.
The proposed ten-kilometre Baramulla–Khanpora improvement should be planned alongside, not separately from, the wider highway works. It should combine traffic management with footpaths, drains, service lanes where feasible, safe crossings and controlled commercial access. A flyover without an agreed local traffic plan can relocate congestion rather than resolve it.
For observers across the Line of Control, too, the most persuasive message is not a slogan or a facade. It is the visible quality of civilian life: a functioning hospital, a well-run market, a safe road and opportunities for young people. Aman Setu should remind us that development near a frontier carries responsibilities as well as possibilities.
A hospital must deliver care
Both Kathua and Baramulla now have government medical colleges. That is a substantial institutional gain. But a college’s name on a building does not answer a patient’s question: can I get the investigation or treatment I need here today?
In July 2025, the health minister announced a proposed 3-Tesla MRI and cath lab for GMC Baramulla, together estimated at ₹37.50 crore. In January 2026, the Chief Minister’s Kathua district review recorded the sanction of an MRI machine. These commitments are welcome. They should now be tracked through procurement, installation, staffing and actual patient use, with dates published at every stage.[4,5]
The distinction between angiography and MRI also matters: angiography requires appropriate imaging and specialist teams, including cath-lab capacity for cardiac procedures. Equipment alone is insufficient. Radiologists, cardiologists, technicians, maintenance contracts, consumables and reliable power determine whether a service works. The government should publish waiting times and referral patterns, not merely the number of machines sanctioned. Decentralised care is a public-service obligation, not a favour to a particular town.
For a family in Kathua or Baramulla, a referral to Jammu or Srinagar can mean transport costs, lost wages and an attendant’s accommodation, besides anxiety. These hidden costs should inform investment decisions. A regional service deserves support until its clinical teams and patient confidence are established; shifting equipment between hospitals without a staffing plan would only move the shortage.
Security land needs civilian-sensitive planning
Defence establishments are integral to both districts. Their requirements cannot be treated as an inconvenience, nor can they become an explanation for abandoning civilian planning. The extent and legal status of defence-held land should be established through authoritative records rather than anecdotal percentages.
Ownership, leases, requisitioning and other arrangements are not interchangeable. Long occupation does not by itself settle ownership or extinguish a citizen’s legal claim. Where a requirement is genuinely enduring and regulations permit, appropriately approved permanent infrastructure may be preferable to repeatedly improvised arrangements. Where land can lawfully be released, the process should be transparent and coordinated with the town’s development plan.
A standing coordination mechanism involving the civil administration, municipal bodies, defence estates and appropriate local defence authorities should resolve access, boundaries, utilities and streetscape issues. It need not disclose operational information. Where acquisition or displacement is unavoidable, lawful compensation and rehabilitation must accompany it. Security and civic dignity are compatible; achieving both requires patient administration rather than permanent exceptionalism.
Representation cannot stop at the Cabinet
The development question inevitably leads to representation. After the October reshuffle, seven of the nine ministers, including the Chief Minister, represent the Kashmir Valley. The two from Jammu division represent Nowshera and Mendhar, both in Pir Panjal. The Chenab Valley has no minister, and neither does the Jammu–Samba–Kathua–Udhampur belt. North Kashmir has one.
Jammu division has 43 of the 90 elected Assembly seats, while Kashmir has 47. Cabinet appointments need not reproduce that arithmetic, but the imbalance in territorial exposure should prompt safeguards. No region should have to prove its loyalty before receiving ordinary administrative attention.
These are reasons for institutional concern, not grounds for questioning any minister’s commitment. A minister represents the entire Union Territory through collective responsibility. Yet proximity matters: neglected roads, hospital gaps and local bottlenecks need a persistent voice where priorities are decided. Srinagar’s importance cannot make other districts invisible, just as Jammu’s importance cannot justify neglecting Kashmir’s remote areas.
I recall the development efforts associated with Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Sardar Harbans Singh Azad in Baramulla. Remembering individual contributions, however, is no substitute for an accountable system. A town’s progress should not depend on whether its representative happens to secure a Cabinet berth.
The nine-member limit makes representation from every district impossible. The answer is therefore not endless competition for portfolios. It is a rule that every district receives a fair, published development assessment, and that ministers have explicit responsibilities to listen beyond their own constituencies. The district-headquarters constituency should have a recognised place in that process.
Professional leadership, democratic accountability
I propose professionally led Gateway Town Development Boards for Kathua and Baramulla, each headed by a non-political chairperson appointed through a transparent process for a fixed term. The appointment should rest on demonstrated competence in infrastructure and public administration, with a published performance agreement and removal for failure to deliver.
These boards would require a clear legal mandate. They must not become parallel governments or weaken elected institutions. The District Development Council’s jurisdiction excludes municipal areas; a gateway-town body must therefore connect municipal planning with district priorities. The existing District Planning Committee already brings together legislators, local representatives and officials. Strengthen that connection instead of bypassing it.
A minister could act as the institutional sponsor for a district headquarters outside the normal pattern of constituency patronage, while all local MLAs retain their planning roles. The professional chairperson would coordinate delivery; elected bodies would retain democratic oversight. The Deputy Commissioner would help align departments, land records and public consultation rather than receive yet another disconnected set of targets.
Professional management must also change procurement habits. A road contract should include maintenance responsibilities, drainage performance and defect correction; a hospital equipment contract should specify uptime, training and response times. The cheapest initial quotation is not necessarily the lowest lifetime cost. Independent quality checks and publication of completion certificates would help distinguish durable assets from projects that look finished only on the day of inauguration.
This principle should extend beyond the two gateway towns. Every district needs an integrated plan covering roads, drainage, water, waste, healthcare, markets and public transport. Non-political leadership cannot mean unaccountable leadership. Contracts, expenditure, land decisions and progress must remain open to public scrutiny, with a credible grievance process for affected families.
A compact for the next three years
Within the first hundred days, the government should publish baseline audits for both towns: travel times, congestion points, road condition, drainage, parking, land and utility constraints, hospital staffing and diagnostic waiting periods. Each priority should have a named officer, an implementing agency and a measurable outcome.
Citizens must be participants in this compact. Traders, residents, women’s groups, patient representatives, transport operators and people with disabilities should help identify problems before designs are frozen. Public hearings must explain what can be done, what cannot and why. Consultation is not a promise to accept every demand; it is an obligation to make trade-offs visible and prevent influential interests from quietly capturing public space.
During the first year, the authorities should complete consulted town plans, establish legal and funding responsibilities, and settle the preparatory work for the two pilot corridors. National highway agencies, UT departments and municipal bodies need one coordinated schedule. No project should be advertised as ready for construction while essential land, utility shifting or approvals remain unresolved.
By the second year, visible sections of the pilots should be operational, not merely marked by foundation stones. Hospital upgrades should show documented service availability. By the third year, an independent assessment should compare results with the original baselines and explain every major delay or cost change.
A quarterly public dashboard should report expenditure, physical progress and service outcomes. The Chief Secretary should coordinate inter-agency obstacles, while the elected government provides political direction and works constructively with the Lieutenant Governor and Union authorities. Existing programmes should be converged were lawful, without double-counting expenditure or disguising one announcement as several projects. Maintenance budgets must be protected before new announcements.
Somewhere must mean a better everyday life
The phrase “from nowhere to somewhere” does not suggest that our towns or their people are insignificant. It should describe the distance between neglected potential and organised delivery. Kathua and Baramulla already have communities, enterprise, history and strategic value. What they need is sustained attention equal to that value. That is development, not political generosity.
Border proximity should sharpen our development responsibility, not lower our expectations. We should neither use security circumstances as a permanent excuse nor dismiss genuine operational constraints. Good administration can respect both national security and the citizen’s right to a well-run town.
The new ministerial team has an opportunity to replace constituency-centred improvisation with a shared territorial obligation. Start with two gateway towns, make the results visible and auditable, and extend the lessons to the Chenab Valley, Pir Panjal, north Kashmir and the highway districts. In three years, let the test be straightforward: shorter and safer journeys, care closer to home, cleaner public spaces and institutions that answer citizens. That is how renewed political energy becomes development people can actually experience.
Gen R S Reen (Retd) Advisor, Bharat Electronics Limited
