Gandbal residents rue delay in construction of footbridge

Srinagar, Apr 20: The authorities have failed to complete the work on a small bridge of a few meters for the last over 8 years after its construction began in 2016 in the Gandbal area of Srinagar.

Local residents said that the April 16 tragedy of boat capsize in the area— in which 6 people died while 3 are missing—could have been averted had the bridge been completed.

In the absence of the bridge, the only way to reach the place where nearly 400 families live is to foot the distance of a few kilometres from the nearby Batwara area.

The Gandbal area that is separated by river Jhelum with the rest of the city has remained deprived of basic amenities and depends on other city localities for even medical facilities.

For people residing in the place that lies at only a few minutes of distance from commercial hub Lal Chowk, the only way to travel was on a boat that was tied to a rope. The boat service has been suspended after the capsize, with people now having to walk several kilometres for work or for fetching essential commodities.

The area largely comprises people who do menial jobs for living and after the death of their loved ones; they are blaming the successive governments for failure to construct the bridge. “We don’t feel like we are part of the city. We are only a few kilometres away from Lal Chowk, but we feel like we are 400 kilometres away. The government has been very swift in connecting the households with the smart meters, while they left the bridge incomplete for years,” said a local resident, Ashiq Hussain Parray.

According to Roads and Building (R&B) department officials—who are executing the project— the work on the bridge started in 2016, but remained suspended for a long time due to the “paucity of funds” as the project had neither “administrative approval, nor technical sanction.” The width of the bridge was also increased which has now escalated the cost to Rs 4.76 crore, said Chief Engineer R&B, Sajad Ahmad Naqeeb.

Local residents have sought an inquiry over the delay in completion of the project and even blamed the successive governments for the tragedy. But Naqeeb said that the initial execution of the project should have been made after following the codal formalities.

A senior official in the R&B department said that “administrative approvals and technical sanctions” are a prerequisite for starting any project while citing the recent government order that has delegated administrative powers to officers based on the cost of the project.

Under the government notification issued on 9 January 2020, several government officers have been delegated the financial powers to give “administrative approval, technical sanctions and sanctions of contract.”

While the administrative department has the power to grant approval for works up to Rs 20 crore, the Chief Engineer has been accorded the power to sanction up to Rs 10 crore works in concurrence with the Chief Accounts Officer.

Naqeeb said that the revised work has been granted both the administrative approval and technical sanction and they hope to complete the bridge by June this year.

According to local residents the work used to remain suspended for months in a given year.

For six years, the work has not moved beyond the construction of a few cement pillars that support iron girders on half of the bridge. In fact the unfinished bridge, locals said, proved more dangerous as the boat hit one of the pillars leading to its capsize.

“We don’t have even a high school here. Our kids used the boat to travel to the other side for education and if the bridge was not a priority for the government what else could have been,” said local resident, Sameer Ahmad Bhat, while blaming the political parties for “carrying out vote bank politics on the coffins of little children.”