Raising dust
Realty takes a beating in Bari Brahmana town near Jammu as elevation of NH-1 divides it into two
Shop prices crash 70% w Cash sales of petrol stations down 75%
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria
Tribune News Service
CONSTRUCTION of a road or a highway often brings development and sends property prices spiralling, but exactly the opposite is happening in Jammu. The very lifeline of the country, National Highway No. 1, is spelling doom for realty in the town of Bari Brahmana, 13 km short of Jammu.
The stretch of NH-1 passing through the town is being four-laned. So far, so good. In the widening process, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) elevated the one-kilometer stretch by raising 30-40 feet surface constructing concrete walls to lay a new, elevated road. Consequently, the town has been virtually cut into two separate, unconnected halves with no passage for vehicles to drive under. Only pedestrians can walk through the three-four openings.
Shops and business establishments that once boasted of facing NH1 are now in trouble. As sales plummeted due to the new construction, so did property prices. A 12x15 sq.ft. shop that once fetched upwards of Rs 3.25 lakh has no takers even at Rs 1 lakh. It would be convenient and safe to earn interest than wasting Rs 1 lakh from where business has virtually disappeared was the general refrain among the people here.
While the trading community on the left side of the highway (from Jammu) is witnessing a 25 per cent business loss, their counterparts on the right side are bearing a whopping 60 per cent loss. Sample this: Cash sales have slumped to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 4 lakh a day at petrol filling stations. On lean days, sales hover around the Rs 50,000-mark. The Indian Oil Corporation filling station established in 1978 has recorded a whopping loss of Rs 60 lakh a month. “Heavy vehicles and long distance vehicles don’t come to us and we are forced to cater to local vehicles,” said an official.
Things are no better at Shivalik Autoliners, owned by a retired police officer. Lone employee Satpal said that before the project began, they would get 22 oil tankers a month. “Now we barely order two to three tankers. Sales have come down from Rs 1.2 crore to Rs 1.5 lakh a month,” he said.
A three-storey hotel with a bar and restaurant now earns a petty Rs 6-7000 a day. Gazelle Bar, Restaurant and Hotel owner Satinder Singh, who had invested Rs 75 lakh to raise the hotel, is struggling to repay the bank loan. “We have nine rooms. Most of them remain vacant as no one likes to stay here,” he said.
The trading community in the industrial town of Bari-Brahmana has been bearing the maximum brunt of ‘ambitious’ schemes part of the north-south corridor project. “Usually, such projects see a steep increase in real estate prices but here, not only have our livelihoods have been hit hard, property rates too have gone down drastically,” said 70-year-old M.L. Khanna, who has been running a steel workshop for the past two decades. “It is impractical even for pedestrians. There are just three-four openings in the one-kilometre stretch. It would have been lot better had they constructed a flyover like the one in Jammu city, Khanna added.
Tarsem Gupta, a businessman dealing in cosmetics, readymade apparel and branded shoes since 1982, said that his business, too, had been ruined. “My business has come to zero after NHAI raised the surface to build an elevated road. We now want to sell our shops, but there are no takers,” said Gupta. We have made numerous representations to the state government through the then Jammu divisional commissioner B.R. Kundal, Congress MPs Lal Singh and Madan Lal Sharma, sitting minister Surjeet Singh Salathia and former minister Gulchain Singh Charak but nothing worked out.
“We also contacted NHAI and suggested that a flyover be made instead, but they turned down our request saying rules did not allow it,” said Gupta. Had NHAI raised a flyover, the space underneath could have been utilised for parking lots besides providing wider passage to the people easily to cross over, he added.
Pawan Kumar Garg, manager of NHAI’s technical wing, said that five-six openings had been maintained in the stretch, but only for pedestrians. “Keeping openings for vehicles increases the risk of mishaps,” he said. He said that flyovers could be constructed on highways, but the bearing capacity of Bari Brahmana soil was poor. “NHAI had no choice but to raise the surface. Half the work running into crores of rupees had been completed by the time objections were raised,” Garg said.
By design?
RESIDENTS and traders allege that the design was deliberately altered to inconvenience them and “teach them a lesson” after some shopkeepers misbehaved with a NHAI engineer. However, the allegations could not be substantiated. A senior official did claim that no NHAI official had been manhandled in Bari Brahmana.
(http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090321/real.htm#1)
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