An endangered road threatens to cut-off Charar-I-Sharief from the Valley
Abrar A. Matoo
SRINAGAR, May 12: From all over the Kashmir Valley devotees used to throng the Shrine of Hazrat Sheikh-Ul-Alam (R.A.) at Charar-I-Sharief throughout the year.
But the shrine, along with town and some nearly twenty adjoining villages are threatened to be perpetually cut-off by an endangered road near the town bus stand.
Due to the gradual landslides over the course of many years, the road now looms into a three-hundred-foot ravine. The road is gravely endangered and it is only a matter of time that it would collapse and leave the one hundred thousand people of the town and adjoining villages suffering and detached from the rest of the valley.
“This road is our only viable and feasible connecting link with the rest of the valley, but there is grave anxiety amongst the people regarding its condition. There is no certainty when it would collapse, and if it happens, the population of the town and adjoining villages may not have proper connectivity for months on end. At the moment it is not such a big project to buttress the road, but tomorrow, after further damage, it would cost hundred times more than it’d at the moment,” Yasir Sharief Wani, a local journalist commented, while talking to KashmirDespatch.
Given the topography of the town, the residents of Charar-I-Sharief are worried that no alternative road can be built, and if the administration of the district won’t light upon the issue, it might be too late. The residents assume that if an early buttress project would be initiated, along with the work, the connectivity might as well be maintained, but if the road slides into a ravine, the whole picture would turn grim for the town and its adjoining villages.
“To halt the damage to the road and nearby properties, it’s high time to begin a buttress project as soon as possible. We request the administration to start a time-bound project and prevent a great deal of loss of public and private property,” Sufi Aquib added, a local writer and student, whose own house is located adjacent to the endangered road and in danger of collapsing too.
However, the buttress project on the road will not only ensure proper connectivity of the town and adjoining villages with rest of the valley, but it’d also prevent nearby mosque, some twenty shops and some six residential houses from collapsing into the ravine. The landslides have already engulfed a fair share of the mosque’s lawn and are fast running towards the mosque.
While speaking with Kashmir Despatch, District Development Commissioner Shahbaz Mirza gave his utmost assurance that the road is on a priority list of the works in the district. However, the official failed to say when will the administration be initiating a buttress project on the endangered road?
“It’s a very big project! The restoration of the road is not going to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill project. For now, we are awaiting a reply from GAD. We have sent a Detailed Project Report, so the further step to take is for the GAD,” the official mentioned further.
