Senior Congress leader and MLA Inderwal Ghulam Mohammad Saroori today called upon National Highway Authority of India to probe the role of General Reserve Engineering Force commonly known as GREF constituted by the Union of India with the aim to raise the standard of various construction works in the country at par with the international standard and the company was assigned the responsibility of construction of various important road projects in India including widening of Batote-Kishtwar-Sinthan-Srinagar road project in Jammu and Kashmir.According to official spokesperson Saroori today said that GREF 118 Road Construction Company (RCC) of Beacon is using sub-standard material in construction of road and bridges all along Thathri-Kishtwar and Kishtwar Sinthan National Highway.
He said that GREF has endangered the lives of commuters who pass on this road stretch and alleged that GREF 118 RCC authorities were trying to finish its work without maintaining quality.“The GREF uses mountainous slate stone, sand instead of river sand in construction work on 30 KM Thathri-Kishtwar and 85 Kishtwar-Sinthan road linking as a result of which commuters faces lot of inconvenience” said Saroori.He said the GREF most of time remains at the center of the storm for its sub standard work, weather it was the issue sinking of National Highway at various places or the construction of alternative link road at Pul-Doda and Assar, Congress MLA Saroori said that in last few months, he caught GREF twice using sub standard material in construction of side walls and parapets all along Kishtwar-Batote National Highway.
Saroori said that while on way to Jammu, he stopped his cavalcade near Shalimar and Thathri where GREF labourers were digging mountain and were using that same muddy material into construction of side walls. He said that protection walls on Kishtwar-Thatri road was totally collapsed, thus exposing the quality of the material used in construction of these walls constructed only months back.He said that people living all along the national highway right from Premnagar to Thathri, Drabshallah, Kandani, Shalimar, Malipath Chowk to Girinager chowk Kishtwar, Bhandarkote and Mugalmaidan complaints that the drain water perforates into their houses even during dry weather. He said that GREF uses light weight iron rods, which is the main reason behind the collapse of the drain and wall at various place.
Saroori said the GREF authority responsible for maintain the Kishtwar-Jammu National Highway must have installed the crash barrier so that major accidents could be prevented. He also blamed poor road condition for frequent road accident, beside illegal extraction of stone all along the National Highway as causes triggering of shooting stones.He asked the Deputy Commissioners of Doda and Kishtwar Mr. Mubarak Singh and Mohammad Javed Khan to conduct a throw probe into the use of sub standard material in construction of walls, drains by the GREF on both side of National Highway. He also called the concerned SHOs to lodged FIRs against GREF authority for using sub-standard materials.Saroori also appealed to the National Highway authorities of India to initiate a thorough probe into the use of sub standard material into the construction work of road from Thathri to Kishtwar and Kishtwar-Sinthan road as earlier as possible so as to prevent many tragic accidents from occurrence in future.