There is designer jewelry; dresses particularly of ladies, cutlery, curtains and so many other things are available in designer category. But in Jammu one will find designer roads. Though it sounds strange but is true if one looks at the present shape and style of the Jammu city ‘Smart’ roads. Instead of fully macadamizing the roads the government and the concerned agencies chose the long discarded process of putting patches on the roads. In 1984 when Mr. Jagmohan was appointed the Governor of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir the roads of Jammu and Kashmir were first time fully macadamized since their construction. Prior to this the damaged roads were only repaired by putting patches of macadamize on the damaged portion of the road. People had become habitual of using the patched roads which were worse than the damaged roads. When Mr. Jagmohan assumed the charge of Governorship; he, being a visionary civil servant studied the files of PWD (R&B) and as is told by some officers of the department, he found several irregularities in the process of road repairing. He also with the help of accounts and engineering experts found that the money spent on the patch work of the damaged roads was many times more that could have been spent to fully macadamize the city roads. As is told by several officers and officials of the PWD that he called Chief Engineer of PWD Mr. R.S Rana (Father of two great leaders of Jammu Dr. Jitendra Singh and Devendra Rana), and enquired about the methodology adopted for repairing the roads by applying patches instead of macadamizing. As he had no answer, Mr. Jagmohan asked him to go for voluntary retirement otherwise an enquiry shall be initiated against him he accepted immediately. After this the roads of Jammu and Kashmir were first time fully macadamized and this practice continued till the last couple of years. But now for the last couple of years the same process is being adopted for repairing the roads which were full of irregularities. Because of this the roads have now become an art work of patches with different types and of various sizes everywhere. These patches are of different size and design. How many patches one will find on a stretch of hundred meters depends upon the road and the designers. The designers seems to have been selected and assigned this ‘Creative’ job by the worthy JMC, PWD (R&B) and other concerned departments/agencies after adopting a very transparent and accountable process of selection. There are rectangular, square, octagon, even some designs are unique in themselves and can be said as a result of extreme creativity. As such the citizens of Jammu must be happy to have designer roads.
