Srinagar, Nov. 4, 2015: Residents of the isolated Uri region in the Baramulla district of north Kashmir have sought the beginning of direct, nonstop Jammu and Kashmir Road Transport Corporation (JKRTC) bus service on the Srinagar to Uri route early in the morning.
Locals, especially government personnel and patients who must travel often, have expressed how difficult their lives are without such a service.
We need the government to operate JKRTC buses between Srinagar and Uri in a direct and nonstop manner. It is scheduled to depart early in the morning from Srinagar and return late at night. A villager named Manzoor Ahmad said, “This would definitely help the employees who travel to Uri for their jobs.”
The Uri region has been overlooked, he said, despite the government operating early morning direct bus connections from Srinagar to neighboring areas.
Another resident, Shafiq Ahmad Bhat, expressed his worry, saying that many cannot regularly pay the taxi fee. He remarked, “You can take the JKRTC bus for Rs 100 and get to Uri for Rs 250 instead of paying Rs 250 for a cab.”
“The business community in Uri can benefit from the direct and early morning bus service as it will make it easier for traders to pick up and drop off their goods,” the speaker said.
Although there is a bus service operated by the department that runs from Uri to Srinagar, it stops for more than an hour in Baramulla. Arriving in Srinagar at roughly 12:30 pm, it departs from Uri around 8 am. “We now demand that early morning bus service from Srinagar to Uri also be started,” they said. “Then it leaves back for Baramulla at 1.30 pm and reaches Uri at 6.00 pm.”
JKRTC Managing Director Rakesh Kumar Srangal said, “This issue has now come to my attention,” when approached. I’ll give it some thought.
