In bygone days of the valley, a beautiful canal ran through the old city of Srinagar.
Followed by a blunder that was done, that affected both Kashmir’s heritage and economy.
Nallah Mar road is a metalled road made on the Nallah Mar canal. It is one of the biggest engineering blunders of all time. This canal was once made by Sultan Zain ul Abedeen, better known as Budshah. This was also the period when it is said that Dal Lake’s water would be so clear, so pure, that a person could drink it. Sir Walter Lawrence marks in his book that the water of Dal is so clean that a person who can not afford clean drinking water can drink water from Gagribal basin.
This canal was made covering all the areas of Nowpora, Naid Kadal, Bohri Kadal, Saraf Kadal, Qadi Kadal, Rajouri Kadal, Pacha Kadal, Dumb Kadal and Nawa Kadal. Unfortunate enough the canal is now just a traffic bifurcating road which has caused irreplaceable damage to some major water bodies of the city. It was also responsible for natural drainage of the city but now such a mistake whose cost has been overly stupendous; if one is to calculate the amount that is now being spent for conservation and preservation of Dal Lake.
Some changes have taken place over the period of the past 5 years. No bridges connect the places of Nallah Mar anymore but the fly-overs starting from Khaniyar cover the area and help in the transportation. If one could look back in time, we could transport with the help of boats but now the means of transport have changed completely.
Yet to this day, the place is known for the canals that once subsisted and not those bridges or the roads.
Zoya Noor
Class X
