Construction of Tral-Pahalgam stretch continues to be a ‘dream’ of people

BASHARAT RASHID

Tral, 1 Oct: The residents of Bugmud, Karmulla, Bhatnoor, Panner and Mandoora villages of Tral have been demanding the construction of the Tral-Pahalgam road stretch, via Bugmud top, for decades.

A group of locals living in the areas  said, “it’s the long pending demand of people, as the road may connect Tral sub-district with a well-known tourist place of Kashmir valley namely Pahalgam.”

They said that only around 10 kilometers via Bugmud top needs to be constructed, which may help the villages of Tral like Bhatnoor, Bugmud, Karmulla, Panner, Mandoora, and other nearby areas to connect with the villages of Pahalgam like Lihindajan, Walarhama, Salar, Kullar and Liver.

One of the residents said that legislators have only lured the masses about the construction of this stretch, but they actually never took this seriously.

He further said that the road initiative will help the people of both the districts in getting connected with each other, keeping in view the short distance, from the Tral side to Pahalgam side via this forest zone.

A delegation of people living on the Bugmud top rued that they have been yearning for road development for many years now but no concrete step has yet been taken by the authorities.

They said that during the summer, as a part of seasonal migration, when these locals live in the upper reaches face immense issues of poor connectivity.

The residents of the area demanded immediate intervention of authorities so that the work on the project is initiated without any fail.

As per reports, construction work on a few km road in Anantnag has already been started, a good sign indeed that can ease the project work, said few locals of the area.

ADC Tral SA Raina said that he has “already taken up this matter with R&B dept. and a DPR was also submitted by them, with the estimated cost of 29 crore rupees.”

Raina further said that they are looking for NOC from the forest dept. and other formalities to start the work on the said road.