Kupwara, 25 August: The Handwara-Sopore Road, the main connecting road for the people of Kupwara district, continues to be in a deplorable condition, resulting in severe inconvenience to commuters using this road.

The road, which connects dozens of villages, is in a dilapidated condition and riddled with huge potholes in several places, belying the authorities’ bold claims of improving road connectivity.

“Though it is considered an important connecting road to the areas from Handwara to Sopore, it is no longer maintained by the concerned authority, making life difficult for commuters,” locals told Greater Kashmir.

“The pathetic condition of the road has become a serious problem but the authorities are standing by and watching the suffering of the people and are not taking any action to address the problem,” Congress MP Irshad Ganie from Pohrupeth Langate told Greater Kashmir.

“Commuting on this road has become time-consuming. Earlier, it used to take us thirty minutes to reach Sopore, but now the time has doubled, which is really having a negative impact on people’s lives. Students, employees and even businessmen are losing valuable time while commuting on this road,” he added.

“Due to the pathetic condition of the road, we are forced to take the Baramulla route every day. It seems this road has not been paved for a decade,” said a senior official stationed in Handwara.

Residents of both the districts, including Kupwara and Baramulla, have appealed to the authorities to macadamise the road as soon as possible so that they can breathe a sigh of relief.

When Greater Kashmir brought this issue to the attention of Superintending Engineer (SE) Roads and Buildings Kupwara, Ram Lal, he said that a tender worth Rs 7.5 crore has been floated for macadamisation of the road and hopefully, macadamisation work can be started within fifteen days.

He admitted that commuters are facing difficulties due to the pathetic condition of the road, but was quick to add that the suffering of travellers will soon come to an end once the macadamisation is completed.