Sumbal residents await footbridge reconstruction for a decade

Sumbal, Nov 19: A decade after it was demolished in 2013, the authorities in north Kashmir’s Sumbal division of Bandipora district have failed to reconstruct the footbridge that connected various villages with the town and boosted local businesses, locals said.

The footbridge also had historical significance, according to Nazir Ahmad, the president of the Traders Federation in the Sumbal division.

“The heritage bridge linked areas like Nesbal, Naninar, Safapora, Hakabara, Asham and Tengpora with Sumbal market,” he said.

Nazir added it also gave locals access to reach areas in both Ganderbal and Bandipora, and provided a convenient route for those who needed to travel to the market or sub-divisional offices.

“It helped ease the pedestrian movement of the townspeople, separated by river Jehlum as well,” Ahmad told Greater Kashmir.

The construction of the 99-metre-long footbridge was started in 2014 by the Roads & Buildings (R&B) Department with an estimated cost of 4.1 crore rupees, but the work was stopped soon due to department getting involved with some wranglings with the contractor on account of issues with the funding.

The officials at the time claimed the piling of the bridge was a problem as the contractors had not removed some ruins of the old bridge, which caused the problem and required the project to be redesigned or modified.

“Despite the passage of all these years, the work has not progressed even 10 per cent,” Ahmad said.

Before 2019, the project was categorised under languishing projects, with officials citing meagre funding as one of the reasons. The project was expected to receive proper funding and gain pace, but that never happened.

The locals said that ever since the old footbridge was demolished, they have been using boats to cross the river, which was not feasible for everyone.

“Without the bridge, the local movement across the river has been hindered, thus directly affecting the businesses,” Ahmad said.

The residents now claim that the construction agency had received some five crore rupees to construct the bridge, but little details were made available to them.

However, R&B executive engineer Sumbal Mushtaq Ahmad said there were no funds received for the project.

He admitted that no work had been taken up after the 2014 floods, when some embankments were constructed.

“It is a decades-old project and is one of the several projects in the languishing category,” he said, adding that there hasn’t been any progress in the renewed process of constructing the bridge.

He, however, was hopeful that the project might be taken up next year.