Current Matters
Doda, September 11: Since government of India is connecting every area with roads and making the commuting easy, Dessa-Kapran road project, connecting Doda district directly with Kashmir valley continue to be neglected.
This could have provided alternate access to valley and people living in Doda could have got more access to areas which have huge tourism potential.
The construction of Dessa-Kapran road has remained a long pending demand of people living on both the sides, Doda and Anantnag districts, and first the demand was raised in 1958 when Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad was the Prime Minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir. In 1978, the then Chief Minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah also assured people of constructing the road but no concrete action was taken.
At present people of Doda district have to travel around 228 kilometers to reach Srinagar and have to cross many accident prone areas and many people have lost their lives while commuting. The Dessa-Kapran road could have shortened the distance to 140 kms and one completed many unexplored tourist destinations could have brought on the tourism map, thus giving people of Dessa area of Doda district and Kapran area of Anantnag district ample opportunities to earn livelihood.
Dessa is situated on the north-western side of Doda town and at present the motorable road is available upto Majmi area and from their people have to trek to reach their homes situated on upper reaches. Due to non-availability of road connectivity, livelihood of most of the people is still dependent on traditional way of agriculture and horticulture products with maize being one of the major crops of the areas. Besides, the Rajmash is also cultivated in Dessa area and is considered one of the best quality product, which is exported to different parts of the country. Apples and walnuts produced in the area are of high quality and can give tough competition to any other area.
But apart from Rajmash, no other produce is exported to outside world due to non-availability of road connectivity. The Dessa-Kapran road could not only become beneficial for people to have easy access to Kashmir valley and vice-versa but the people of hills will be able to live better life once their produce reaches the markets in Kashmir valley and other parts of J&K.
Another aspect of having benefit of constructing the road is that existing Jammu-Srinagar national highway is prone to landslides which stops the movement of vehicles for days together. Due to huge rush of vehicles, accidents often occur and many people have lost their lives. There was always a need of alternate national highway to Kashmir valley and two existing roads Mughal road, connecting Rajouri and Poonch districts with Kashmir valley and Sinthan road connecting Kishtwar district to Anantnag district have proved to be beneficial in diverting the traffic. Both of these roads take more time and the traffic on Jammu-Srinagar national highway continues to increase.
Dessa-Kapran road has the advantage of becoming the alternate highway in terms of its shorter length and easy access. The government has already started work on connecting Bani area of Kathua district with Bhaderwah area of Doda district through a tunnel which could give people coming from outside J&K alternate option to reach Doda with a couple of hours. Once the Dessa-Kapran road is approved and constructed, people can take the route to reach Kashmir valley hassle free.
Once the national highway road passes through a particular area it brings development and people get employment at local level. Tourism is one of the most important aspect where people can earn livelihood and that too when tourists from outside J&K get access to virgin tourists destinations without getting stuck in traffic jams, they will prefer to stay in the area and spend money. Doda district has the huge tourism potential as every area has lush green fields and hills which are yet to be explored by tourists from outside. The better road connectivity could give them easy access and Dessa-Kapran road will serve the purpose.
In 2014, government of India allotted new medical colleges for J&K and Doda district got one which was constructed in Ghat village, five kilometers from district headquarters Doda, with an aim to provide better healthcare to people. The GMC Doda is yet to get 100 staff as doctors from outside feel hesitant in reaching the area due to poor connectivity. At present many doctors are from Kashmir valley and Jammu and many doctors from Kashmir want to serve in GMC Doda but due to poor accessibility, they remain reluctant. Those doctors who are serving in GMC Doda don’t visit their homes much and it takes a day for them to reach their homes and due to professional responsibilities, they have to stay back in GMC and remain far away from their families. Once the Dessa-Kapran road is constructed, more doctors from valley will be able to reach here and serve in GMC. This will not only give doctors opportunity to earn livelihood, but people have get better healthcare facility at their doorsteps.
Many individuals and political parties have made efforts to get the approval of construction of this road but to no avail. Previous governments have only made promises to the people of constructing this road from Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad to sheikh Muhammad Abdullah to Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and Omar Abdullah but it hasn’t yet been constructed. Recently, Bharatiya Janta Party district president Doda Vijay Mohan Thakur, who hails from Dessa area, had raised the issue with Minster of state in PMO Dr. Jitendra Singh and there was some positive response but officials of public works department and National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) have said that they haven’t yet got any directions from above to make detailed project report and state the formal work. There were also talks of constructing a tunnel to give direct access between Dessa and Kapran but no one has given any positive response so far.
The end result is that Dessa-Kapran road is still pending and people continue to wait.
