Jahangeer Ganaie

No separate mechanical division for Mughal road

No separate mechanical division for Mughal road
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Snow clearance work at halt, businessmen suffer huge loss

Shopian: The snow clearance process on the prominent Mughal road has come to a grinding halt in absence of mechanical division, thus leaving the residents to suffer besides leading to huge loss to the traders of Shopian.
Though Mughal road got status of alternative national highway in the year 2016, authorities here have failed to ensure a functional mechanical division to look after the roads and other related issues there.
The 84 kilometre stretch, connecting Shopian in Kashmir division with Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu division remained closed for about six months now due to the heavy snowfall as about 10 to 20 kms of the highway are prone to high danger Avalanches.
Officials within Mechanical Department Shopian said that they will start snow clearing process after March 15, 2019.
Several Shopian businessmen said their business with Rajouri and Poonch traders has come to a halt for a long time now, therefore causing huge losses to them.
Pertinently, the distance between Shopian town and Poonch town has reduced to 126 from 588 Kms due to Mughal road and since then many marriages have taken place that has helped in intermixing of culture in these two different areas besides trade.
Meanwhile, businessmen and locals requested the government to either construct a tunnel on it or create a full-fledged separate mechanical division with modern machineries and technical staff for the Mughal road.
Assistant Executive Engineer Mechanical division Shopian, Fayaz Ahmed said that from 15 November to 15 March, they clear general roads and following which the work on Mughal road is started.
This year, there is more snow on the Mughal road and it seems it will take about two months to clear it, he said, adding that this year at many places there are more than 16 feet of snow on the road, which is huge as compared to last years.
“A file for the creation of new mechanical division for Mughal road is lying before higher officials but due to unknown reasons officials have been delaying its approval,” he added.


Jahangeer Ganaie

Jahangeer Ganaie is a reporter and covers regional news and can be contacted [email protected]

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