Incomplete drainage leaves Indra Nagar residents fuming
Srinagar: Sluggish work on the under construction drainage system at Indira Nagar locality in Srinagar is putting the residents to immense hardships.
The residents allege that they are facing lot of difficulties due to slow pace of the drainage construction work that has been started by the contractor from June this year. The drainage works have resulted in roads being damaged completely, making movement of the people quite difficult, they said.
A delegation comprising of locals said that the authorities started the work to construct the drainage system in the area but the work is still awaiting competition due to the carelessness of the administration and the contractor, as a result the residents are facing immense hardships.
Pertinently, the devastating floods of 2014, had damaged the civic infrastructure in the locality, but the administration is yet to repair the roads and drains that were damaged during the floods, locals allege.
“The water table in the area is very close to the ground surface, which adds to the miseries people face due to the lack of a proper drainage system. The streets are often seen flooded with water, hence creating immense hardships for the pedestrians as well as severely affecting vehicular movement in the area,” Mohammad Shafi, a local said.
“The work on drainage system has been taken up couple of times in past but after some initial work it is stopped and left mid way,” says Maulvi Shabir Ahmad. He appealed the authorities to complete the drainage work on war footing basis.
Assistant Executive Engineer, Drainage Division, Zaffar Mustafa while talking to ‘Kashmir Wire’ said that SMC has taken up the drainage work in June 2017 and they have been assigned a completion period of one and a half years.
“We are working on the project, and we are well ahead as per the allotted duration and we expect that the project will be completed well before the completion period,” Zaffar said.
“Although we are only assigned to take up the drainage project and the road restoration work is assigned to Cantonment Board but we have taken the restoration work as well as they (Cantonment Board) is lacking the required resources,” he added.
“Drainage work up to Manorajan Lane has been completed so far, and once we are done with de-silting, the roads will be restored within 10 days, however macadamization work will be taken up in summers next year,” he said. (Kashmir Wire)
KV Correspondent
