SC clears J-K Mughal Road project

The Supreme Court on Friday gave a go-ahead to the J-K Government’s Mughal Road project.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave a go-ahead to the J-K Government’s Mughal Road project. The all-weather road will be an alternative link for the existing Srinagar-Jammu National Highway which has proved to be quite unreliable in extreme weather conditions.

A special three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan vacated the stay on the project. The State Government was required to meet environmental guidelines laid down by the Empowered Committee set up by the apex court.

Jammu & Kashmir has been asked to hand over 149 sq km of forest land to the Wildlife department and set aside 5 per cent of the project cost for the preservation of wildlife.

“We never had any objections. These are the conditions we had already agreed to abide by,” said J-K Minister for Roads & Buildings Gulchain Singh Charak. The Government, Charak said, had already paid Rs 3 crore to the Wildlife department out the total Rs 12 crore that is to be paid. The total cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 255 crore.

“We will now concentrate on building the road in the shortest possible time. There are no more hurdles,” said Charak. The road is being built by Hindustan Construction Company.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also directed the Government to issue a notification to declare Lachipora, Naganari and Limber areas along the LoC in Uri as a national park. However, the areas are not part of the stretch in question.

A three-member committee comprising the Chief Secretary, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and the Chief Wildlife Warden are to monitor the fulfilment of these conditions by the state.

Story continues below this ad

Mughal Road, planned to be an 83.9-km stretch, is to link Kashmir with Poonch in Jammu. Although the project was conceived way back in 1979, it was abandoned after some time. In the 90s, the outbreak of militancy gave the project a whole new dimension. The security forces had contended then that the link would be used by militants as a part of stretch was very close to the Line of Control in Jammu.

“We hope to meet the March 2009 deadline set for (roads) its completion,” said project chief engineer Sheikh Muhammad Hussain.

The road has a long history and was first laid out by the Mughals after they conquered Kashmir in 1586 AD. It was the most feasible all-weather link to Kashmir which cut across the Pir Panjal range dividing Jammu from Kashmir province.