Chenani-Nashri road gives travellers a bumpy ride

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 5

The Chenani-Nashri stretch on the national highway via Patnitop has become a victim of the government’s apathy. Travellers have to bear the brunt of the bumpy road stretch of 41 km.

With all eyes on the inauguration of country’s longest tunnel from Chenani to Nashri, which will reduce the distance of more than 30 km on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway bypassing Kud, Patnitop and Batote, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has ignored the stretch of 41 km from Chenani to Nashri via Patnitop.

Patnitop fails to attract tourists from all over the country due to bad condition of the road. This is not only affecting the business of hoteliers and other stakeholders, but also killing the potential of the famous tourist destination.

“No one wants to come here just because of the bad condition of road. Whosoever reaches here, talks about their worst experience of travelling,” said Fiyaz Ahmed, a shawl merchant at Patnitop.

“The future of this tourist destination is on stake due to bad road connectivity. Not only tourists from outside the state, but also Jammu residents are losing interest in this place,” he added.

The hoteliers claims that the business in Patnitop has come down by more than 50 per cent in last three years and they are afraid that it may come down more after the inauguration of the tunnel.

Locals said after the commencement of the work of the tunnel, nothing had been done for the area and they were feeling that the state administration might ignore the road like the Nandani road after the commencement of four-laning of Jammu-Udhampur highway.

The bad stretch of road starts from Chenani with big and small potholes on the double-lane highway and the absence of parapets add to danger to the travellers.

“This is the best tourist destination I have ever seen. This is full of natural beauty and awesome weather condition, even when the entire country is facing scorching heat. But the infrastructure disappoints us, especially the bad condition of roads. It seems like no one has taken care of the road for years together,” said Prateek Patel, a tourist from Gujarat.

The NHAI claims that they have started repairing patches on the road and complete re-carpeting will be done within a month.

“The work has been started on the road. Rs 22 crore have been allotted for the road,” said RP Singh, Project Director, NHAI, Jammu.