Srinagar’s ‘Rigid Concrete Pavement’ survives first winter; will it be replicated?

SRINAGAR, FEB 6: At a time when Kashmir witnessed harshest weather condition in last over three decades, and most of the roads are in a shambles yet again, the ‘Rigid Concrete Pavement’ laid on Srinagar airport road has apparently survived.

But the big question is this: will it be replicated in other parts of the city, and other towns where roads degenerate very quickly?

The concrete pavement has been laid by Jammu and Kashmir Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) under the World Bank assisted Jhelum & Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP).

The J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) started work on Rs 9.16 crore ‘Rigid Concrete Pavement of civil secretariat to Rambagh Chowk road in August 2020 and ever since the project has been hailed by the locals, commuters and especially the business community.

The project road connects Srinagar to Sheikh Ul Alam international Airport, having moderate intensity of commercial vehicles. Rambagh to Civil Secretariat is a highly commercial area with settlements on both sides of the road like Rambagh, Solina, Allochi Bagh, Tulsibagh, Hazuri Bagh, Magarmal Bagh, Saraibala, Batamallo, Shaheed Gunj etc. The subproject road starts from the Rambagh near Barzulla Bridge and terminates at Civil Secretariat near Jehangir Chowk.

Javed Iqbal Tara, Director, Kashmir ERA informed that the road portion was constructed at an approximate cost of Rs 9.16 crore. The project was completed within the set deadline and directly benefited thousands of people.

Director Planning and Coordination (P&C), JTFRP, Iftikhar Ahmad Hakim, said that this was for the first time that Concrete Rigid Pavement Technology was being used for up-gradation of roads in J&K.

Civil engineering experts, however, believe that it was too early to infer that this technique will survive the subsequent years of wear and tear and weather vagaries.

“First year is okay. But we need to see its durability in coming years. Most of the other roads in Kashmir degenerate quickly due to poor engineering, bad drainage and sloping for water runoff and dismal quality of the materials. This road comes as a refreshing change. Let us see the coming years”, Abdul Hameed, a resident of Hyderpora said.