By Lt Gen. R. S. Reen

For nearly 2,000 years, Baramulla has stood at the gateway to the Kashmir Valley. Today, almost anyone who lives here can tell you what’s gone wrong. 

Roads around Main Chowk are riddled with potholes, drains overflow after even a little rain, parks have slowly disappeared, and government offices are scattered all over town, forcing people to run from one building to another just to get basic work done.

None of these problems are new. The district administration knows them, local traders live with them every day, and the Army has seen them for years. 

Everyone understands what needs fixing, but what Baramulla has been missing is a clear plan that assigns responsibility, sets deadlines, and makes sure every promise is followed through.

That plan now exists, and it shifts the public discourse beyond politics by treating Baramulla’s long-standing problems as issues that can be solved through planning, coordination and execution.

The blueprint lays out six practical steps to transform Baramulla by 2040. Most of the projects are already funded or underway. The idea is simple: bring every project under one coordinated plan.

The cost is estimated at ₹500 crore to ₹1,000 crore over five to seven years. Money was never the biggest hurdle. Coordination was, and this blueprint is designed to provide it.

Start with security, because nothing in Baramulla moves without it. 

The town hosts the 19 Infantry Division, the Dagger Division, whose presence has anchored stability for decades and made civic planning possible in the first place. 

But the Division’s footprint extends well past the barracks,........

© Kashmir Observer