Railway track boon for some, bane for others in flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir

The railway track of the Baramulla-Banihal train in Jammu and Kashmir has been a boon for some areas while bane for many others in the flood-ravaged Valley. The track built over an around 15-20 feet high embankment at some places has led to blocking of the passage of water thereby flooding some areas while at the same time saving many others from destruction. "Railway is good for the people, but the bund (embankment) built for the track blocked the outflow of water from our village," Ghulam Nabi Hajam, a resident of Gulzarpora village in south Kashmir's Pulwama district told PTI.

He said the water level in their village would not have reached as high as 8 to 10 feet, had there been no embankment. "When the waters flooded our village, there was no escape route for it in the absence of any flood channel.The bund stopped it. Had there been no bund, the water would have, no doubt, flown into other villages but could not have caused much damage here," Hajam said. The residents said the engineers, who built the track, should have left gaps at regular intervals in the bund to allow the passage of waters.

"There are small gaps at few places, but those were not enough," Hajam said. A youth, Parvez Ahmad, expressed the same apprehension about the under-construction four-lane road on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
"The road is fine, but there should be gaps in its bund at every half-a-kilometre for allowing water to pass, otherwise we are doomed," Ahmad said. The residents of Gulzarpora might be cursing the railway track, but for the people in the adjacent villages, it acted truly as a blessing when the floods hit these areas in south Kashmir on September 5. 

"Our village was saved because of the railway track.Its bund is raised high and flood water was blocked on the other side," Mohammad Maqbool, a resident of Renzipora said. He said even though the people in his village were saddened at the destruction caused by the flood in other villages, they were happy to see their area safe. "We are thankful to God and then the government for the bund that saved us, but at the same time, we feel for our brothers in the nearby villages," Maqbool said.

Similar is the story in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, where two posh areas narrate the same tale of the bund acting as a saviour for one and a cause of destruction for the other. The railway track passes through Humhama, on the airport road, and while one side of the bund was flooded, the other side was not, a resident of the area, Fayaz Ahmad Mir said. "The bund acted as a barrier and stopped water from flooding some areas, but it submerged many others.So for some, it was a blessing while for others a curse," Mir said