Srinagar:Fora city that is ever expanding, roads are a vital heartbeat. Road wideningprojects have to get priority in a city which is facing challenges likehorizontal expansion, population explosion, mass rural migration andunemployment. Srinagar city with a history of 2000 years is no more a citywhere every person knew every other person. In other words, it is becoming ametropolis soon and roads will play a crucial role in as far as how the citymanages its half-a-million vehicles in future. The work on mainroad-widening-projects are halted due to lack of funds. The officials concernedare blaming government for releasing meager amount for clearing the overallland acquisition costs. It must be borne in mind that the widening of the Qamarwarito Shalteng was conceived years ago. At that time, the cost of the project wasfew crores which has now increased three times more than that particularamount. Similarly, the widening of Mirgund to Baramulla was started some yearsago but is yet to see the light of the day. Regarding the survey andpreparation of the documents of land falling under the said Highway, the thenDeputy Commissioner Baramulla G N Itoo deployed all the revenue staff toprepare the documents for the acquisition and mutation of the land of whichninety percent of the work was already completed, even we heard that DPR costfor first, second and third pakages was estimated 600cr, 450cr and 550crrespectively. However what happened to that survey since then, remains aquestion. We are well a ware about p ast, a s p art of the four-laning project,the work in 7-km stretch of the Srinagar-Baramulla highway from Parimpora toNarbal was hardly made functional a year ago as two spots — a gurdwara andpetrol pump — in its vicinity were acting as major hurdles near the HMTlocality. It was only on December 12 last year that after hectic consultationsthe authorities were successful in persuading the two parties to relocate toanother site to pave way for the highway after over 13 years.