Seven years on, Chanderkote-Swani road, still a distant dream

Tahir Mushtaq

RAMBAN, Mar 21: Contradictory to the tall claims of state government to connect every nook and corner of the state, people of village Swani under district Ramban were still cut off from other parts of the district, owing to the casual approach of the Public Works Department (PWD).

According to the sources, from the past about eight years the PWD R&B Department with the financial help of NABARD scheme has started the work of seven kilometer Chanderkote-Swani road in district Ramban, but due to the negligent attitude of the department the work is still on snail's pace.

Sources further said that work was approved at the estimated cost of Rs 407.09 Crore including the construction of road and compensation of land.

"Only few people got meager compensation which also is a cause of concern for the people whose land was acquired for the seven kilometer track" sources added.
Ex Sarpanch Chanderkote, Dharam Chand Anthal said that in year 2010 the concerned department started the work of cutting from first two km, but from the last five year the work has been stopped by the department.

"Now the department has resumed work from last three months but no load carriers or Cutting machines have been engaged" he said.

A local, Kuljeet Rajput said that the revenue department is the main culprit in the whole process of road construction who started without any proper survey of the said area, due to which the land started sliding creating a life threat for the residents.

He maintained that the first priority of the concerned department would be providing compensation to the land owners after which the department should engage specialized engineers.

Whereas the Executive Engineer PWD (R&B) Ramban Amar Singh Katoch said
"There is some dispute with the locals owing to which the work has been delayed for over seven years".