Srinagar- Despite missing multiple deadlines, the much-hyped Srinagar Smart City Project (SSCL) has failed to turn the city into a contemporary metropolis. Rather, what greets the residents is a nightmare of dug-out roads, making Srinagar resemble ‘Afghanistan’s Tora Bora’ from one end to the other.
Discouraged by the poor performance of the executing agency, the Srinagar residents now feel that the multi-crore project would take longer than expected to finish, and have thus urged the authorities to at least repair the city’s dug-out roads.
“The work on smart city has been underway for six years—beginning 2018—we are fed up now. For the SSSL to finish the project appears to be an insurmountable task. Now that driving in Srinagar has turned into a nightmare, we earnestly appeal to the administration to fix the dug-out roads,” Shabir Ahmad, a Nawpora resident, told Kashmir Observer.
Although the project was aimed to give Srinagar a facelift, the back to back extensions have had a negative impact on normal life in Srinagar. People want the project to be scrapped which has caused difficulties for pedestrians and motorists alike.
“The city of Srinagar reminds me of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, which makes me laugh out loud sometimes. I feel as though I am living the life of an early man because of the worn-out roads, broken sidewalks and frustrating traffic jams caused by the shrinking and dug-out roads,” he added.
There is apprehension among the public regarding the timely completion of the project due to the executing agency’s repeated failures to meet deadlines for completing the reconstruction of pathways, tiling, drainage systems, underground facilities, landscaping.
The common issues people have to confront in Srinagar these days include annoying traffic bottlenecks, collisions, and patients dying on the roads amid traffic jams.
Traffic jams due to dug-out roads have become a major cause of concern for the people and that the problems worsen mainly in the evening.
People living in Srinagar’s downtown asserted that, besides being dug up from one end to the other, the roads never see a break from the monotonous traffic congestion.
The project will be finished in time, according to officials of Srinagar Smart City Ltd. (SSCL), and there won’t be any further delays that might annoy the people.
“In Srinagar, construction has nearly reached a 95 percent completion rate. Only a little amount of work, such as pavements and macadamization, remains to be done. We try our hardest, but we also understand the difficulties that people may be facing,” a senior SSCL official told Kashmir Observer.
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