Centre sanctions more funds for ring road in Srinagar

The Srinagar semi-ring road project has gained momentum with the Central government allocating an additional amount of ₹1,400 crore for land acquisition. The National Highway Authority of India has divided the project into two phases. Its earlier estimated cost was ₹1,860 crore where Phase 1 has 42.10 kilometres for 90 per cent of the land that has been acquired. While as for phase 2, consisting of 19 kilometres of road length to be developed, a detailed project report is under revision for change of alignment. However, the project is still facing hiccups as many landowners are alleging that the authorities are not giving them fair compensation in lieu of land as farmers are demanding compensation as per the new central compensation Act which has come into effect in J&K after the abrogation of special status. Under the Phase-II of the project, a two-way road will start at Narbal and meet in Ganderbal and the project is likely to cost ₹1195 crore in Phase-I and ₹448 crore in Phase-II. The road length in Phase-I will be 34.72 km and in Phase-II 27.2 km along with a Toll Plaza at Narbal Junction. In the proposed four-lane road project from Galander to Narbal, there will be 155 culverts, two road-over bridges, two flyovers, five major junctions, 17 minor junctions and one Toll Plaza. The two-lane road from Narbal to Ganderbal will have 135 culverts, five major junctions and nine minor junctions. The projects should keep room for widening from four-lane to six-lane and from two-lane to four-lane to cater to the emerging requirements.