Srinagar progress still a work in progress

Amid delays caused by floods and unrest, flyover project drags for 4 years, maternity hospital for six years.

The Rambagh-Jehangir Chowk flyover, meant to span nearly 3 km, is far from complete after four years. Shuaib Masoodi

Srinagar’s first flyover in the making ends abruptly with rods jutting out of one side, before spiralling down again. This is where Jehangir Chowk, one of the city’s busiest crossing, was to join Rambagh via an Elevated Expressway Corridor. The face of development, or lack of it, in Srinagar, the 2.95-km flyover has been under construction for over four years and is said to be around 60% complete. Moving at the same, unhurried pace is the construction of a 200-bed maternity hospital that started six years ago, with only a skeleton of a structure ready. A footbridge in flood-affected Rajbagh remains stuck in administrative indecision. A grade separator at another busy junction has gone little beyond the foundation stone laid by former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The government cites lack of available working days for delays in projects, while the Opposition cites delay in paying contractors.

The flyover has missed at least three deadlines and its cost has escalated 1½ times. Public Works Minister Naeem Akhtar told The Indian Express the project has only had about three working months in the last one year and “had the situation not been conducive this year also, the project would have missed more deadlines”. He agreed work started late and some rehabilitation issues, too, added to the delay. “It is an arterial city road, we also had to figure out alternative traffic arrangements and sort some labour issues after the floods,” the minister said. A lot of the workforce comes from outside the state and they were not immediately available.

National Conference leader Nasir Aslam Wani said, “I am told there are delays in payment to the contractor, that is why there is a delay. Also, if they are claiming there are 700 workers; I have not seen that many people working there, ever.” Simplex Infrastructure Limited, the contractor, stated that when the project was reopened last January, there were delays in payment that held up work. The company also lost machinery in the floods of 2014.
The initial cost of the Asian Development Bank-funded project, commissioned in 2013, was Rs 200.74 crore as per project manager Iqbal Mir. Satish Razdan, director (Kashmir) for executing agency Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) said the cost has now escalated to Rs 346 crore. “There are two main reasons for this escalation,” Razdan said: delays due to the floods of 2014 (six months) and the unrest following the death of militant leader Burhan Wani in 2016 (eight months).

The men and machinery engaged are largely based in Kralpora Chadoora, about 18 km from the site. “The area remains disturbed and a single day’s strike causes a loss of about three days of work because it takes two to three days to get the factory that sends the concrete and iron running again,” Razdan said.

The initial deadline was June 2016, revised to September 2017 and then to January 2018. As a result, the entire stretch of road under construction remains clogged with traffic and shrouded in a cloud of dust.
The site manager said at least 700 (skilled and unskilled) persons are involved in the construction. When the The Indian Express visited the site, five workers were watering the columns. A junior engineer said the project has met 80% of its initial civil cost of Rs 200 crore and a “notable” amount of work had been completed in the last four months.

Between the pillars, the area is free-for-all for parking and commuters navigate traffic from all directions. The flyover is meant to reduce travel time between Jehangir Chowk and Rambagh from 28 minutes to 2½ minutes.
The project affects the livelihood of about 300 shopkeepers — carpet and fruit sellers, automobile mechanics, pharmacists — on either side, who claim that they have not been compensated. “Business has fallen at least 75% for us,” said M S Beig, owner of KC Carpets. He said the government initially promised monetary compensation but later decided against it.

ERA officials said two shopping complexes have been built at both ends of the flyover to accommodate shopkeepers. Not all shopkeepers, however, have been rehabilited there. Manjeet Singh, who owns a small repair shop, said he has not been accommodated or compensated despite requests and demonstrations over the last four years. Although the government expects the flyover to be functional by January 2018, engineers suggest that black-topping cannot be done in the January weather and a “more realistic deadline” would be June 2018.

Naveed Iqbal

Naveed Iqbal is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, and reports from Jammu and Kashmir. With a career spanning over 15 years in frontline journalism, Naveed provides authoritative reporting on the region’s transition, governance, and the socio-political implications of national policies. Expertise Regional Specialization: Based in the Srinagar and New Delhi bureaus, Naveed has spent over a decade documenting the unique challenges of Jammu and Kashmir. Her reporting is distinguished by deep contextual knowledge of the region's post-Article 370, statehood debates, and local electoral politics. Key Coverage Beats: Her extensive body of work covers: Politics & Governance: Tracking the National Conference (NC), PDP, and BJP dynamics, including in-depth coverage of J&K’s first Assembly sessions and Rajya Sabha polls following the reorganization of the state. Internal Security & Justice: Providing rigorous reporting on counter-insurgency operations, terror module investigations, and judicial developments involving political detainees and constitutional rights. Education & Minority Affairs: Highlighting systemic issues such as quota rows in J&K, public service commission reforms, and the challenges faced by minority communities. ... Read More

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