An unpredictable Srinagar-Jammu highway and the long wait for its development

Arka Chakraborty and Taitreyi Biswas

The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway connecting the Kashmir valley to the outside world is one of the most treacherous roads in South Asia. The highway is a vital surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the world. It remains closed for almost 40 days every year due to bad weather conditions. Several people have lost their lives on this highway because of landslides which occur mainly due to man-made activities.

Causes and nature of road accidents on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway

Authorities attribute the high frequency of road accidents on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway to the mountainous terrain that is prone to landslides and falling rocks. However, many people from nearby villages believe that there is more to the problem. “The highway cuts through many areas where mountains are held by loose soil. These mountains are also being blasted for road-widening purposes. Civilian traffic and hundreds of heavy army trucks pass through the area daily. There is stress on the road beyond its capacity and it becomes prone to accidents,” said Naveed Peerzada, a civil engineer.

The authorities adopt an unscientific way to cut trees on the Pir-Panjal range, along with machine vibrations utilized for widening the Jammu-Srinagar highway. Such activities are carried out frequently. They alter the pressure under the slope, leading to instability which in turn causes landslides. Activities of such kind are designed and put forward in the name of development. But when such kind of development is executed in an unscientific manner, it proves disastrous and fatal. Vibrations from heavy equipment and machinery along with natural forces decrease the strength of the hills and making them more landslide-prone. This kind of development also contradicts and challenges the complex geographical and ecological aspects that are strong foundations of the existence of this stretch.  Man-made activities and the unchecked utilization of the resources, adding them together, aggravate the vulnerability of the highway.

The successive governments have failed to find alternatives to the crises that result from the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway in the history of the Kashmir valley. A local politician stated, “It seems this road connectivity between Srinagar and Jammu is of the least priority for the Government of India”. However, in recent times, certain steps have been taken for the development of the highway, which hopefully entails the safety and welfare of the public.

The root of the problem

The dangerous situation created by the below-mentioned factors on the Srinagar-Jammu highway leads to a number of problems that are detrimental to public life and prove fatal, in both financial and literal senses. These problems are interrelated and often corroborate one another, much like the causal contributing factors.

1. High Number of Accidental Deaths:

Frequent rock-falling and landslides as well as the skidding of cars in the particularly treacherous areas of the Srinagar-Jammu highway claim lives of a large number of people every year. In 2019, 447 people died in accidents on the highway. This clearly illustrates the seriousness of the issue at hand. Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat, Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir RTI movement, states, “There is not a single day when we don’t hear about deaths and injuries happening on Srinagar Jammu highway.” In view of the current condition, even the Jammu and Kashmir High Court observed that the condition of the highway was ‘precariously shabby.’

2. Impediment in proper communication and transportation:

The frequent rock-fallings and landslides throughout the year and snowfall and avalanches during the winter results in the “all-weather” highway being closed down frequently throughout the year. This results in vehicles, some of them carrying essential commodities being stuck at the highway for hours on end. On one occasion, 500 vehicles were stranded on the highway from Panthial to Udhampur due to a landslide in Panthial caused by ‘light rainfall. In another case, 1500-2000 passenger vehicles along with about 3000 trucks and tankers were stranded on the highway following the prolonged (six days) shutdown of the highway due to conditions caused by snowfall. This, on one hand, leaves the stranded vehicles and their passengers at an increased risk of accident and on the other hand, creates huge socio-economic problems in the Valley.

3. Businesses negatively affected:

Producers and traders based on J&K depend on the supply of raw material from the outside and also depend on outside markets for their manufactured goods to be sold. The frequent disruption of the Srinagar Jammu national highway, the only form of “all-weather” surface communication route available greatly destabilizes the businesses and destabilizes the stakeholders’ income. The export commodities that suffer the most are the perishable commodities like cherry, plums and peaches. This has added to the manifold problems of Kashmir’s promising horticulture sector.

4. Consumers’ suffering:

Jammu and Kashmir is an import-heavy region. According to official sources, Kashmir imports goods worth Rs. 95 crores per day, mostly through Srinagar Jammu national highway. The majority of the essential commodities are imported from other states through the Srinagar Jammu national highway and every minor disruption of traffic causes a scarcity of essential commodities in the region. For example, one such disruption of traffic creates a scarcity of vegetables and fuel in Kashmir.

5. Geographical Isolation:

Moreover, many experts believe that the increased dependence of the Kashmir valley on the highway to connect itself with the rest of India has led to the region’s complete geographic isolation. The road is often closed due to bad weather conditions, and in winters, the problem is aggravated by heavy snowfall. “This road has made Kashmir an enclosure,” said Gowhar Bhat, a researcher at AJK Mass Communication Research Center in Delhi. “Everything is regulated and mobility is controlled. The Indian government has blocked all the routes of Kashmir with the outer world and even the knob of this road is with them. The government decides who can travel and when,” Bhat added.

6. Public Resentment:

There is a lot of resentment among the local population of Jammu and Kashmir regarding the condition of Srinagar Jammu national highway. Repeated promises made by the successive governments to address the issues and their eventual non-fulfillment have created a sense of disillusionment and distrust among the locals regarding the competence and goodwill of their governments. The continued delays in the four-laning of the highway are one of the many issues that the people have voiced in this regard. The exclusively ‘all-weather’ accessibility of the highway gives it civil as well as military importance. However, due to inevitable security concerns, the movement of military vehicles are often given priority over civil vehicular movements. This creates situations of confrontation between the military personnel and the civilians which only serves to increase the commuters’ overall suffering.

7. Environmental impact:

In the successive administrations’ many attempts in developing the connectivity between J&K and the world, the impact o the environment has been relegated to a position of minor consideration. This has led to devastating effects on the areas where such ‘development’ takes place. For example, the ecology around the region where the Srinagar-Jammu national highway is being widened and four-laned has been hit hard by the recent projects.

Some of the government initiatives

Previous elected state governments, the central government and now the Union Territory government have taken measures and initiated schemes to improve the condition of surface communication between J&K and the rest of India. A few of the most important and well-known of these initiatives are mentioned below-

1. The four-laning of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway:

This massive project is the principal source of hope for all commuters who travel by the Srinagar Jammu national highway to and from J&K to the rest of India as it, once completed, promises to cut the travel time by half by reducing the distance to be travelled by 50 kilometres by bypassing many treacherous zones. It was envisaged in 2011 and projected to be completed by the next five years. However, various factors including the failure of NHAI and its executing agencies to meet any deadlines resulted in the delaying of the project to the point where it still remains to be completed today. The recent Union Territory government, however, seems to have taken this project very seriously. Chief Secretary B. V. R. Subrahmanyam recently reviewed the progress of the project, expressing concern over its slow pace and instructing the constitution of District Level Coordination Committees headed by the Deputy Commissioners in Udhampur and Ramban districts and a Divisional Level Committee headed by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, to coordinate and monitor the progress of the project. In spite of the CS’s concern, however, the nodal officer for the National Highway four-laning project, Finance Commissioner, Revenue, Pawan Kotwal, has expressed satisfaction over the pace of its progression and has predicted that the project will be completed in ‘one-and-half’ years i.e. by 2021. Whether this prediction comes true remains to be seen.

2. The Jammu-Akhnoor Road Widening Project:

The Jammu-Akhnoor Section of NH-144A is an extremely important route for defence vehicles and one of the busiest roads of the erstwhile state, connection Rajouri and Poonch to the rest of the country. The widening project, once completed, will ensure not only a safer journey for civilians but also for eased military movement along this route.

3.The Chenani-Sukhmahadev Project:

This project envisages connecting the backward and rural areas of Udhampur district and ensuring safe passage to Doda.

4. Z-Morh and Zozilla Tunnel Projects:

Tunnels ensure protection from landslides and skidding and therefore are of crucial importance to any road travelling through the mountainous territory. The two tunnels will link Srinagar with Kargil and Leh which is important from a strategic perspective. They will also protect the vehicles from identified avalanche sites. The Z-Morh project is 6.5 km of tunnel with an estimated budget of Rs. 2500 crores while Zozilla, a 14-km long stretch between Baltal and Minamarg, is projected to be Asia’s longest tunnel at a height of 11578 metres above sea level and has an estimated budget of more than 6000 crores.

Recommendations

The current UT government and the Centre, it goes without saying, are trying their best to integrate the long-isolated J&K region with the rest of India by ensuring its physical connectivity. However, the government should take certain steps in order to make this objective a reality.

1. Mughal road, the only other road connecting J&K to the rest of the world, should be given as much importance in terms of development as the Srinagar Jammu national highway. If this road is widened and ‘all-weather’ connectivity is ensured, the pressure on the sole highway will reduce considerably, making it less landslide-prone. Mughal road is also safer to travel by than the highway due to the soil conditions surrounding it.
2. Winter connectivity has to be given special attention. The current UT government seems to be focusing on this as according to a recent report, the administration directed the National Highways Authority of India to submit a Winter Traffic Management Plan of agencies to ensure hassle-free traffic in the Srinagar Jammu national highway during the winter.
3. Railway is an efficient way to ensure surface connectivity. Although Jammu division is connected by railway, Kashmir division, the principal importer of essentials in the UT, still remains to be connected by railway lines. A project envisaged in 1995 which aimed to do so still remains to be completed, incurring expenses of Rs. 25000 crores while initially a budget of only Rs. 2500 crores was estimated. The bottlenecks hindering the completion of this project have to be removed and the project has to be completed as soon as possible. Railway connectivity has led to enhanced industrial development in Jammu division and the same will likely happen in the Kashmir division once the project is completed.
4. Airfreight is an alternative to roads when it comes to the transportation of goods and essentials. However, the unstable air freight charges remain to be a major problem for J&K’s businessmen. Airfreight charges have to be subsidized and stabilized keeping in mind the essential import and export goods of J&K if air freight has to emerge as a viable alternative to surface goods transportation.
5. The environment should not be given secondary importance in developmental policies, including the surface connectivity schemes of J&K. Environmental impact must be treated as a sensitive and highly important factor while envisioning and executing any development project.
6. The administration should ensure that while the movement of military vehicles takes a priority, civilian vehicular movement should not face impediments because of the same.

Conclusion

The abysmal surface connectivity of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country that has emerged out of a complex interaction of factors like geographical difficulty, bureaucratic inertia and extreme weather conditions have led to the suffering and death of thousands in the Valley and has persisted for the last 73 years of independence. Only sincere planned and well-coordinated efforts by the government can open the way for a new age of better connectivity between the isolated region and the rest of the world. In order to achieve this, however, bottlenecks have to be identified and removed as quickly as possible taking into serious consideration of the environmental impact of every action taken towards development.

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