Proposed Flyover To Decongest Traffic In Jammu Kashmir’s Srinagar Stirs Opposition From Civil Society
The proposed 1.75 km flyover from city centre to Rajbagh across river Jhelum is facing scrutiny over environmental concerns.
Published : March 17, 2026 at 5:44 PM IST
Srinagar: A proposed flyover project in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar, aimed at easing traffic congestion is facing opposition from citizens, environmentalists, and urban planners, who warn of damage to the city’s heritage and fragile ecology.
The proposed 1.75-kilometer-long flyover will be constructed from Moulana Azad Road in the city to Rajbagh, an old residential locality which has seen increased traffic due to commercialisation of its residential area. Although PWD officials and engineers are tight-lipped about the proposal due to the surrounding opposition, the elected government has cited in two instances that it plans to build the flyover.
According to government statements, the flyover would run from Joggers Park in Rajbagh to Maulana Azad Road via Sherwani Road, crossing the Jhelum River. Last year in March, the Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Surinder Choudhary, who is also the minister for the Public Works Department (PWD), confirmed the government's plan for this new flyover from Moulana Azad Road to Rajbagh.
“Omar Abdullah's government plans to decongest Srinagar city amid its rising traffic and population because people face many problems due to traffic jams,” Choudhary said while visiting the proposed flyover site in Rajbagh last year in March.
In reply to a question from his party’s chief spokesperson and legislator Tanvir Sadiq regarding the city's traffic congestion, Omar Abdullah, who also holds the Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD) portfolio, stated in the assembly last year that a proposal for constructing a vehicular overpass bridge or flyover from Convent School (Joggers Park) in Rajbagh to M.A. Link Road via Sherwani Road over the river Jhelum is under review by the Public Works (R&B) Department. He also said that the Detailed Project Report for the flyover project is currently under appraisal to ease the city's traffic congestion.
The government repeated the same reply during this year’s assembly budget session held in Jammu. Choudhary, the PWD minister, said that a DPR for the project has been prepared at an estimated cost of Rs 143.89 crore. “The project has been in demand from residents, traders and commuters, who face heavy traffic bottlenecks almost every day. “This is expected to ease chronic traffic congestion in one of the City’s busiest areas,” he said in reply to a question from NC legislator from Lalchowk, Sheikh Ahsan Ahmad.
Faiz Bakshi, Convener of the Environmental Policy Group, which is spearheading the campaign against the proposal, said the group heard the PWD department plans to build the flyover from Rajbagh to Sangarmal Complex at M A Road. “The proposal is not in the public domain. We filed two RTIs but received no response from the PWD, although the project will be executed by the same department. We also learnt a memo will be placed before the cabinet for the construction of this project at a cost of Rs 145 crore,” Bakshi said.
The Group also held a press conference earlier where it opposed the project citing that it will be a “disaster” for the city, which tourists visit for its Mughal gardens filled with Chinar trees. Questioning the need for this proposed flyover, he said that the government of India has sanctioned a flyover from Dalgate to Parimpora already.
Bakshi said the flyover has been National Conference’s (the ruling party) “dream since the 80's”, referring to the project first conceived by the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s government in 1981 as part of a broader plan to develop new road projects and bridges. But it could not be executed in the last four decades.
During the PDP and BJP coalition government, a footbridge was constructed at the site which is functional today and links Srinagar’s Residency road with Rajbagh at the Presentation Convent School. This bridge was originally proposed as a motorable bridge to decongest traffic on MA and Residency Roads of Lalchowk, but was altered into a pedestrian bridge by the then government.
“It will be a disaster. Seven to eight Chinar trees which are living monuments and heritage of Kashmir will be cut down at the Polo Ground. And also many poplar trees standing in the ground will be affected. The ground also houses a football stadium and a Rugby ground. Commercial properties like old shops will also be impacted by this flyover,” Tawseef Ahmad, another member of the EPG said.
Raja Muzaffar, a social activist, said that along the Rajbagh area where the project is being proposed, a government higher secondary school, Institute of Hotel Management and a police station will come under the flyover.
Former chief town planner of Kashmir, Iftikar Hakim said that the proposal violates the Master Plan, contradicts decades of mobility planning, threatens the Jhelum’s already fragile flood behaviour, and jeopardizes the city’s largest public spaces and school precincts.
He said that within a radius of less than a kilometre, Srinagar already has Abdullah Bridge, Zero Bridge, Lal Mandi Footbridge. “Flyovers do not solve congestion; they shift it. They create downstream bottlenecks, multiply conflict points, and induce more vehicles. A flyover always delivers two minutes of relief before ten minutes of new congestion,” he said.
Hakim Sameer Hamdani, an architect and architectural historian, urged the government to allow a public debate on the proposed project. “Let's not repeat the mess of the Smart City. A request to those who are in power,” he said.
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