Bilal Colony link road awaits long-pending blacktopping

Srinagar, Nov 5: Residents of Bilal Colony in Srinagar have expressed growing frustration over the authorities’ failure to macadamise the lane connecting their locality with the 90 Feet Road, despite repeated assurances.

For more than three years, the residents have been waiting for the completion of this crucial link road, even as adjoining roads and bylanes in the area have already been blacktopped.

“They promised us the work would be completed within days, but it seems we’ve been forgotten,” said a resident, adding that the condition of the road worsens with every spell of rain.

Locals complained that even light rainfall turns the unpaved stretch into a muddy cesspool, making it difficult for residents—particularly schoolchildren and the elderly—to move about. “We have to wade through muck and puddles just to step outside. It’s a daily struggle,” another resident said.

The residents have appealed to MLA Hazratbal Salman Sagar, the District Development Commissioner Srinagar, and the Chief Engineer of the Roads and Buildings Department to intervene and ensure immediate blacktopping of the long-neglected link road.

“It’s a basic civic necessity that has been denied to us for too long,” they said, urging the authorities to act without further delay.

Residents said they have time and again visited the offices of the Roads and Buildings Department and the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to press for early completion of the link road, but their repeated requests have brought no results. According to them, officials continue to make assurances without taking any concrete action on the ground. “We are only given promises. Nothing has changed in years, and our road remains in the same miserable state,” a resident remarked in disappointment.