Fund crunch hits work on Jehangir Chowk flyover

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 17

Lack of funds has put a spanner in the completion of the 2.4-km Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover, the new deadline for which is June 2018.

Officials said Simplex Infrastructure Limited (SIL), the construction firm, was facing a shortage of funds that resulted in the retrenching of labour.

“The SIL is facing a shortage of funds, which has resulted in retrenching of labour from 850 per day to 300 per day,” reads a recent communication from the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.

Officials said the protests triggered by ‘braid-chopping’ incidents had led to the harassment of labourers from outside the state, resulting in halting of the construction.

Also, our vehicles carrying the construction material are not being allowed by the traffic personnel to move to the site during the day, they added. Officials further said the SIL had also made claim on the account of damage during the 2014 floods and 2016 unrest amounting to Rs 45 crore, which had not been released. The first phase of the project, which has been hanging fire since 2013, would now be completed in December while the second phase in June 2018.

Director of the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA), which is the executing agency, Satish Razdhan said 125 skilled labourers engaged in the flyover construction left the Valley after the protests over ‘braid-chopping’ erupted in the Rambagh area.

Razdhan said the government had established a loss of Rs 21 crore to the SIL due to the 2014 floods and 2016 unrest. “We have paid Rs 10 crore as compensation to the SIL,” he added.