The much-hyped artificial lake project on the Tawi river, which has now missed six deadlines and cost crores, is currently in limbo. Last year, the Jammu and Kashmir administration set a new deadline of 2023 to complete the multi-crore artificial Tawi lake project in Jammu, which has been plagued by “delays and cancellations” since its inception in 2009. In 1986, then-Governor Jagmohan gave his approval to the lake project. The state government began the construction project in 2008-09 after much delay.
The lake, which was envisioned by Omar Abdullah’s government in 2009, missed its first deadline in 2012, then five more in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Despite spending a huge Rs 51.57 crore on its construction, the project has yet to be finished due to various political and construction interventions.
Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, who stated in Nov 2021 that the project has the potential to offer Jammu city a big facelift, has asked the department to expedite the project’s implementation so that the artificial pondage in the river would be completed by April 2022, according to PTI. However, no work has been completed thus far.
According to the project plan, an auto-mechanical barrage will be built one kilometre downstream of the main Tawi bridge on the river Tawi. This will aid in the creation of an artificial lake in Jammu.
According to officials, the 1,500-meter-long and 600-meter-wide artificial lake, which is the first of its kind in the region, would add a new dimension to tourism in Jammu.
The irony struck when the project became contentious, and the then-chief minister, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, said on May 15, 2015, in the presence of then-deputy chief minister Dr Nirmal Singh, that the lake project was not economically or technically possible on the river.
The BJP, which was a part of the state government at the time, continued boasting that it was a dream project for the party and that it would be completed as soon as possible, but the reality contradicted its boasts.
The Tawi River Front Development Project, for which an MoU had previously been signed by the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) and the Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation, was to be undertaken in phase II of the project (SRFDC). In this regard, a complete project report has been developed.
The artificial lake was the first of its kind, designed to give Jammu City a fresh face and encourage tourism in the region. After the Central Water Commission of India, New Delhi, approved the design provided by Institute of Technology New Delhi, work on the project began. M/S GVR Infra Ltd. of Hyderabad was allotted the project building work for a mechanically operated gated barrage measuring 370 metres in length and 4 metres in height. The Department of Irrigation and Flood Control has been keeping an eye on the progress of the project.
The general public believes that the project was initiated in secret at the request of some influential ministers, without sufficient model studies of the Tawi River’s behaviour, which carries a lot of bed load in the form of stones, gravel, silt, and sand.
People feel that because the project is still incomplete, the administration is not interested in completing it.
Jammu residents who voted for various regimes to come to power feel duped and abandoned by the system. Jammu residents appear to have lost trust.
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Masood Malik is a guest author and founder/Editor-in-chief of NewsInsider 24×7 and J&K-based Public Herald weekly newspaper.
