Jammu & Kashmir: Reminiscences of a general

I have been singularly fortunate, when the first regiment I joined as a 2ndLieutenant after attending the young officers’ course at College of Military Engineering (CME), Pune moved from Bangalore to Jammu & Kashmir in October 1968. In March 1969, we arrived in Srinagar, via Pathankot where we camped for a few months. Truly, as Moghul Emperor Jahangir had said, Kashmir was paradise.
Immediately on reaching Srinagar we moved to Mohura which is en route to Uri to build a semi permanent bridge over River Jhelum. The bridge still stands, and I showed it to my children years later as Chief Engineer, Beacon, of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). After completion of the bridge, my field company (a sub unit of the Regiment) rejoined the regiment at Srinagar. Databases were nonexistent then. New guidelines had just been issued on how to collect data about roads and prepare road data cards. For the young officers, who were assigned this task, it was a God-sent opportunity to travel all over the valley while collecting data .

Later, when the road to Leh via Zojila was opened in June 69 and it was thrilling to drive through the Zojila Pass with its high ice walls of over ten metres on either side. At such times, one admires the personnel of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) who clear the frozen snow at high altitudes with winds blowing at high velocity. Another sub unit of ours was building Harka Bahadur at Kargil and I had gone to see the construction. This bridge also stands today and lies on the Kargil-Skardu Axis. It was of great importance both during 1971 and Kargil operations.

I was again posted to a regiment, after my degree course at CME Pune, which was to move to Ladakh in 1974. We moved by special trains up to Pathankot and Chakkibank and then by road over six days to Leh via Srinagar, Zojila and Kargil. In winter we had tried to keep open the passes Changla and Khardungla but it was an impossible task, with hardly any equipment. After Christmas, the snow was unprecedented and by New Year the passes had closed and we used to walk across. In this tenure I had seen most of Ladakh.

My third tenure in J&K was at Samba near Jammu, where I was posted as a Brigade Major during 1983-84.The brigade was responsible to oversee the entire border and I had an opportunity to travel extensively from Madhopur to Jammu and Akhnoor, part on foot too.

While attending the Higher Command Course, one physically sees most of the border areas of the country. We moved from Jammu to Poonch by road and one could see the Hajipir Pass from a post at Poonch. As Director in Military Operations Directorate at Army HQ, one of my charter of responsibilities was roads. I had studied the road network and was also responsible to finalise the Army’s annual road development plan to be executed by BRO. I had visited the Kashmir Valley when floods cut off the National Highway near Awantipur in August 1996. However it was as Chief Engineer Project Beacon of BRO, after having attended the NDC Course, that I travelled extensively on the roads in J&K with the sole aim of improving them. I can proudly say that except for the first one week after my arrival at Srinagar in January 2000, the national highway NH1A was never closed for more than one day at a time during my tenure and even during my successors’ tenure. I travelled on NH1A from Srinagar to Jammu and back at least once a month if not more. The Jawahar Tunnel was in a terrible condition (former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah will second me). We had renovated it and he had inaugurated it in December 2000. Travelling on the old Banihal alignment was interesting. So was our drive over Razdan Pass to Gurez Valley, over Sadhana Pass to Tangdhar, over Tut Mar Gali (TMG) to Kaiyan Bowl, Kishtwar via Doda. We had also constructed a bridge over Sansari Nullah, that connects Himachal with J&K, via Dul, Gulabgarh and Galhar. One must drive on these roads to appreciate the effort put in by BRO personnel and also see the smiles on the faces of the locals who are connected.

As DGBR I had the opportunity to drive on most of the roads under the charge of BRO. Communication is the key to growth. While mobile communication is revolutionising our life style, physical communication has not been able to keep pace and is dragging growth. Today’s technology enables us to build better roads in a far lesser time frame and more economically. Satellites help us in selecting appropriate alignments even in the most rugged and difficult mountainous terrain. Every time I drove on a road, invariably the locals would try and meet me and narrate their problems concerning road communication. I did whatever was possible within my capacity to help them. Having also seen the difference that a road connection can make in Afghanistan (the first black top highway in Nimroz Province in Afghanistan was constructed by BRO) and in Bhutan (Bhutan had hardly any roads when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru accompanied by Mrs Indira Gandhi visited on pony back during late 50s), I am convinced that if we as a nation concentrate on development of road networks as priority one, other aspects of development and growth will follow on their own.

A large number of articles and books have been written by intellectuals and others during the last six decades on the Kashmir issue. Our former Army Chief Gen Padmanabhan, who knows the issue well also, raised the question - to care about - let us address them. Development is the key to security as well...Kashmir has not developed because, though large amount of funds have been spent, like Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said only a few paise ultimately reach the destination at the ground level, it is true all over India and more true in Kashmir. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened. We need to address corruption- make development funds and their utilisation totally transparent. This is the start point. Then let us set a deadline of Dec 2014 i.e. before next elections in J&K.

•         Build the required roads - let J&K have the highest road density in the country, both in terms of road length per 100 sq km of area as well as km per lakh population, the best quality by 2014. If funds are a problem, we are a Nation of over billion people and let each one of us contribute a minimum of one rupee per year and we will have in our kitty Rs one Billion every year for six years. Let each one of us volunteer- even if we work for ten days a year- a million volunteers a year i.e. ten million man days per year, sixty million man days effort over a period of six years will help us develop the desired road net work in J&K including Ladakh.

•         Kashmir is the Paradise - except some parts during peak winter, it has excellent weather- most conducive to learning- let us establish a college in every valley- there are numerous valleys like, Gurez,Tangdhar, Kishtwar, ,Bhadarwah,Rajouri,Poonch, Uri Yusmarg,Tangmarg, Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Partapur just to name a few. In case all these are connected-internet, mobile plus roads, sky is the limit for the rate of growth. J&K will become the knowledge centre of the world. 

I am confident that all Indians will get to visit the Paradise at least once in their life time.

Lt Gen KS Rao, AVSM (Retd) is a former Director General, Border Roads Organisation

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of the editorial committee or the centre for land warfare studies).