SRINAGAR: Bridges aren’t just structures, they are promises standing on piers. Some turn into enduring landmarks, a few age ungracefully, others fall into disuse, and the odd one remains a monument to despair.
Seven years in the making, with two disconnected decks on either side and a yawning gap of indifference in between, the one over the Jhelum in Srinagar’s Ganderbal is a bridge of sighs.
Around 8am on Tuesday, tragedy struck this backwater of Jammu & Kashmr’s capital city when six of 15 people – five of them children headed to school – drowned after the boat ferrying them across the swollen river capsized. Three people are still missing.
“This is on those responsible for the bridge remaining incomplete all these years,” said Ghulam Mohammad of Batwara, from where the victims hailed. “It’s a shame people living on Srinagar’s outskirts still have to cross a river by boat to get to work or school.”
Ganderbal’s seemingly unending wait for a 110-metre bridge, just about the length of a football pitch, contrasts with Srinagar’s development into a Smart City with modern amenities since 2019.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was J&K’s CM when a footbridge was sanctioned in 2016 to fulfil a long-standing demand of residents. Work commenced the next year with a budget of Rs 4.7 crore, only for the plan to hit a roadblock.
“The width of the bridge was 5.9 feet in the original blueprint, but residents of the area approached the authorities with a request to widen it into a motorable span. The basic parameters changed, and the sanctioning process had to start all over again,” Sajad Ahmad Naqeeb, chief engineer of roads and buildings, told TOI.
The official blamed the unavailability of “dedicated funding” for the expansion’s failure to receive immediate sanction. By the time the new design and budget were approved in 2019, Mufti was no longer CM. The bridge’s width was recalibrated to 3.9m (13ft).
Just as construction was to start, J&K plunged into uncertainty in the wake of Article 370 being nullified. Then came the pandemic-induced shutdown the following year.
“Since 2019, and multiple interruptions later, two of the three planned spans of the bridge have been built. The third span should be completed in June,” Naqeeb said.
Mohammad Latif Dar, a resident of Ganderbal, said people of the area had submitted a couple of memorandums to the authorities, complaining of the pace at which work had progressed over the past seven years.
“The unfinished bridge is a testament to the gaps between development promises and reality. What can be worse than schoolchildren drowning just 3km from the smart city hub of Lal Chowk because their area doesn’t have a bridge over a river that is often in spate?” he said.
The Kashmir Valley has had heavy rainfall the past four days, causing the Jhelum to swell. The boat that capsized was going against the current, officials said.
Twins Tahir and Mudasir Fayaz, 12, drowned along with their mother Firdousa. Mohammad Azan, their friend, isn’t ready to reconcile to the reality that the brothers he would play and go to tuition with almost every day won’t return. “We used to call them Dolu and Bolu because they were a spitting image of each other in height and shape,” said Azan, also 12.
A witness to Tuesday’s boat capsize said he would forever be haunted by the sight of flailing hands peeking out of the waters.
Rescue workers retrieved four school bags close to Chattabal, 10km downstream from Ganderbal. A picture of the muddied bags hung on a wooden door was widely shared on social media, accentuating outrage over the tragedy.
Some residents said the bridge remaining incomplete after seven years wasn’t the only travesty. Ganderbal purportedly has a lone functional govt primary school with poor infrastructure, forcing families to send their children to institutes across the river.
Bashir Ahmad, who lives in the locality, said one of his neighbours recently took his child out of the primary school and enrolled him in Kendriya Vidyalaya No-1 at Batwara. “This primary school had been established in 2011 but never got an upgrade,” said Altaf Ahmad, another resident.
The school has three classrooms, 87 students & six teachers. Director of school education Tassaduq Hussain Mir wasn’t available for comment.
Seven years in the making, with two disconnected decks on either side and a yawning gap of indifference in between, the one over the Jhelum in Srinagar’s Ganderbal is a bridge of sighs.
Around 8am on Tuesday, tragedy struck this backwater of Jammu & Kashmr’s capital city when six of 15 people – five of them children headed to school – drowned after the boat ferrying them across the swollen river capsized. Three people are still missing.
“This is on those responsible for the bridge remaining incomplete all these years,” said Ghulam Mohammad of Batwara, from where the victims hailed. “It’s a shame people living on Srinagar’s outskirts still have to cross a river by boat to get to work or school.”
Ganderbal’s seemingly unending wait for a 110-metre bridge, just about the length of a football pitch, contrasts with Srinagar’s development into a Smart City with modern amenities since 2019.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was J&K’s CM when a footbridge was sanctioned in 2016 to fulfil a long-standing demand of residents. Work commenced the next year with a budget of Rs 4.7 crore, only for the plan to hit a roadblock.
“The width of the bridge was 5.9 feet in the original blueprint, but residents of the area approached the authorities with a request to widen it into a motorable span. The basic parameters changed, and the sanctioning process had to start all over again,” Sajad Ahmad Naqeeb, chief engineer of roads and buildings, told TOI.
The official blamed the unavailability of “dedicated funding” for the expansion’s failure to receive immediate sanction. By the time the new design and budget were approved in 2019, Mufti was no longer CM. The bridge’s width was recalibrated to 3.9m (13ft).
Just as construction was to start, J&K plunged into uncertainty in the wake of Article 370 being nullified. Then came the pandemic-induced shutdown the following year.
“Since 2019, and multiple interruptions later, two of the three planned spans of the bridge have been built. The third span should be completed in June,” Naqeeb said.
Mohammad Latif Dar, a resident of Ganderbal, said people of the area had submitted a couple of memorandums to the authorities, complaining of the pace at which work had progressed over the past seven years.
“The unfinished bridge is a testament to the gaps between development promises and reality. What can be worse than schoolchildren drowning just 3km from the smart city hub of Lal Chowk because their area doesn’t have a bridge over a river that is often in spate?” he said.
The Kashmir Valley has had heavy rainfall the past four days, causing the Jhelum to swell. The boat that capsized was going against the current, officials said.
Twins Tahir and Mudasir Fayaz, 12, drowned along with their mother Firdousa. Mohammad Azan, their friend, isn’t ready to reconcile to the reality that the brothers he would play and go to tuition with almost every day won’t return. “We used to call them Dolu and Bolu because they were a spitting image of each other in height and shape,” said Azan, also 12.
A witness to Tuesday’s boat capsize said he would forever be haunted by the sight of flailing hands peeking out of the waters.
Rescue workers retrieved four school bags close to Chattabal, 10km downstream from Ganderbal. A picture of the muddied bags hung on a wooden door was widely shared on social media, accentuating outrage over the tragedy.
Some residents said the bridge remaining incomplete after seven years wasn’t the only travesty. Ganderbal purportedly has a lone functional govt primary school with poor infrastructure, forcing families to send their children to institutes across the river.
Bashir Ahmad, who lives in the locality, said one of his neighbours recently took his child out of the primary school and enrolled him in Kendriya Vidyalaya No-1 at Batwara. “This primary school had been established in 2011 but never got an upgrade,” said Altaf Ahmad, another resident.
The school has three classrooms, 87 students & six teachers. Director of school education Tassaduq Hussain Mir wasn’t available for comment.