Mohammad Sarfaraz
Early Times Report
BARAMULLA, Dec 18: Many peripheral villages of Baramulla district have still been deprived of adequate connectivity as the PMGSY scheme was never implemented here in letter and spirit which is aimed at providing all-weather rural road connectivity and to access eligible unconnected habitations.
According to sources there are dozens of villages in this border area like Limber, Tilawari, Batangi, Mayan, Banali, Chotali, Gharkote, Nambla Kamalkote, Dardkote, Maidanan, Manchikrand, and Dhanisyedan which still lack proper connectivity.
"If we are not wrong the basic time frame for completion of these roads under PMGSY was perceived to be 2014 however, because of constraints of capacity of implementation of the scheme was not been achieved so far", said locals of the area.
Bashir Ahmad a local resident of Boniyar said without prescribing any specification for construction of Rural Roads under PMGSY scheme there should be construction of all Rural Roads irrespective of the scheme.
He said that, during winter season they remain cut off from rest of the valley for at least four to five months and government should bring in latest technology which helps in laying motor- able roads in adverse climatic conditions.
However a senior official of Roads and Building (R&B) department said that there are some of the major constraints and bottlenecks in providing rural connectivity for rural roads.
Fact of the matter is that during the last decade, the investments in road sector have increased many folds. To absorb the increased investments for creating efficient road infrastructure, it was required that the capacity of the implementing machinery as well as contracting industry should also increase in pace with the quantum of investment which is yet to be seen, the official told Early Times on anonymity conditions.
The official further added that over 1.78 lakh eligible habitations were covered under PMSGY, more than 1.08 lakh have already been connected by a road till March 2015 and the rural development ministry plans to connect the remaining nearly 70,000 habitations by March 2019. |
