Think roads, think ecology

TNN Bureau. Updated: 3/1/2017 11:25:45 PM Edit and Opinion

In an interaction with students from Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphatically said that efforts are being made by the central government to improve connectivity and infrastructure in the state. On the same day the chairman of National Highways Authority of India was also on Jammu on the advice of Prime Minister’s Office to get fresh update on the status of various strategic roads in Jammu and Kashmir. In his meeting with the state’s Works Minister, the NHAI chairman confirmed that the ambitious tunnel project connecting Chennani with Nashri on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is almost ready for launch and various other big ticket projects are also nearing completion. Connectivity is perhaps the biggest thing that has been happening in Jammu and Kashmir for last 15 to 20 years. Owing to the border conflicts with Pakistan and China, there was some reluctance on enhancing connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir in the earlier decades. However, with the opening of the Ministry of Defence and Home Affairs to the new and better informed strategic thinking, the Mughal Road was the first major breakthrough aiming at testing new ideas. The Mughal Road was like literally going back to the road less travelled. Another benefit that Jammu and Kashmir continues to reap was the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visionary project of the North-South corridor which has not only improved the existing traditional highway but also added more branches of the National Highway. Some of the roads like Bhaderwah-Bani-Basohli, Kishtwar-Anantnag and Budhal-Shopian are the revival of historical roads which had existed for centuries but were abandoned because of evolving political and strategic reasons. The new roads are not only about connectivity but also about replacing the old cultures with new and pushing new ideological spaces. There was a time when road projects were blocked from clearances purely on the security reasons but experiments have suggested that every new road has opened people to new realities and challenges the old narratives. Caution is, however, still advisable. While the Centre and the State go overdrive with roads it is also important to factor in the ecological concerns. A proposal to construct tunnel under the Mughal Road is a case in point here. To make Mughal Road fair weather the possibility of tunnel is being discussed on which the Centre and the State both appear serious. Had the engineers thought of this two decades ago, the fragile ecology of the area would have been saved.


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