Bandipora, July 4 -- Over a decade after work began, the proposed Bandipora-Lolab road in North Kashmir remains largely abandoned-its promise of connectivity buried under political pledges and bureaucratic inertia.

Designed to link Bandipora and Kupwara districts through the breathtaking Lolab Valley, the 37-kilometre route was expected to be completed by late 2010. But 14 years later, only 5 kilometres between Binlipora and Ketson have undergone preliminary earthwork. The rest lies untouched. Locals said the road was initially proposed in the 1970s by then Minister Ghulam Rasool Kaar, but the road was revived with much fanfare in 2007.

Locals and civil society members voice strong resentment over the repeated failures of successive adm...