By Peerzada Waseem
Sopore: Five years have passed since the foundation stone was laid to connect Mahrajpora via Sheer colony bridge but the project is still incomplete. Officials rue that of 16 Crore only 9 Crore were released by the government.
The project commenced was kick started by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in 2013, December.
“How can we complete the bridge when half of money is still not provided to complete the project,” JKPCC Exn Ferooz Ahmad Chat told INS.
The contractor, Zubair Ahmad, claimed that of the money released they managed to complete almost 40 percent of the work.
While locals are disgruntled by the official work, they claim, corruption too has played its part and government almost shelved the project.
“A casual laborer has been working as a supervisor on the bridge while an engineer for the job never joined the work,” they said.
Sources inside district adminstration put blame on Chat, accusign him of deliberately delaying documentations leading to project incompletion.
Zubair, the contractor, said that since the funds have been stopped, they have halted the work as well.
“We will look into the matter and the allegations made. Will take necessary action,” Deputy Development Commissioner Baramulla GN Itoo said.