Arzan Garzan Dam project faces nearly a decade of delays

BUDGAM — A key irrigation infrastructure project in Charar-e-Sharief’s Arzan Garzan area, here in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, meant to transform agricultural potential across over 1,000 hectares, continues to face inordinate delays despite being initiated nearly a decade ago.

The Arzan Garzan Dam project, a Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI) scheme, was included under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP), now part of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), back in 2013–14, with a targeted Command Area of 1022 hectares and an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore.

Advocate Javed Hubi, senior leader of the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and prominent political activist, while talking to the news agency KNT, voiced serious concern over the prolonged delay of the project, blaming bureaucratic inertia and flawed planning.

“Despite starting excavation work for the dam body in 2016, the project still lies incomplete, denying farmers the much-needed irrigation benefits,” Hubi said.

According to official documents, the initial delay was caused by design approval issues. While authorities claimed the dam’s design was eventually approved by the then state government, with a completion target set for 2020–21, no significant progress has been witnessed on the ground since then.

The dam was to be a part of a cluster of 117 SMI projects designed to enhance agricultural productivity in water-deficient zones of Jammu and Kashmir. However, Arzan Garzan remains a glaring example of how policy on paper often falters in execution.

“Farmers in the area have waited long enough. Each missed agricultural season is a loss to both livelihoods and local food security,” Hubi said, urging the administration to take immediate steps for project revival.

Locals and political activists alike are now questioning the fate of other SMI schemes in the Kashmir Valley, fearing a broader pattern of negligence.

“As the region faces changing climate patterns and unpredictable rainfalls, timely completion of irrigation projects like Arzan Garzan becomes crucial to safeguarding Kashmir’s rural agrarian economy,” Advocate Hubi said.