Jammu Kashmir Plans Underground Hospital in Poonch, Fails to Spend Half of Bunker Funds

SRINAGAR: In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, which witnessed deadly cross-border shelling in Jammu and Kashmir’s border districts, the government has unveiled a major plan to construct the first underground emergency and critical care hospital facility in Poonch. However, even as these preparedness measures are being publicised, a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that nearly half the Central funds meant for building safety bunkers for border civilians remain unspent.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, the Jammu and Kashmir government has submitted a proposal to establish an underground emergency and operation theatre wing at the District Hospital Poonch, which was at the forefront of handling casualties during the recent shelling in May that killed 16 civilians. The new facility will include an underground emergency wing, critical care centre, and staff accommodation, and if approved, it will be the first of its kind in Jammu and Kashmir, designed specifically for functioning during shelling or war-like situations.

Dr Shafeeq, the medical superintendent of the hospital, told the newspaper that the hospital catered to most of the injured during the four-day barrage of shells. “We treated almost all patients locally; only a few were referred to Jammu,” he said. While the hospital has a dedicated team of over 200 staff, including 35 doctors, the lack of advanced equipment, including ventilators, cost some lives, such as that of Amarjit Singh, who walked into the hospital injured and died two hours later.

While the hospital upgrade proposal signals a shift in developmental focus post-Operation Sindoor, an RTI response has exposed serious lapses in the execution of another critical civil defence measure: the construction of safety bunkers.

The Jammu and Kashmir Home Department, in its reply to RTI applicant Raman Sharma, revealed that of the Rs 242.77 crore allocated by the Centre from 2020–21 to 2024–25 for building individual and community bunkers along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB), only 53.42 per cent has been spent. The unutilised amount stands at Rs 113.10 crore, even though these were relatively peaceful years, barring the deadly escalation last month.

District-wise, Rajouri led in bunker fund utilisation with Rs 78.05 crore, followed by Poonch (Rs 44.56 crore), Samba (Rs 42.09 crore), Kathua (Rs 37.20 crore), and Jammu (Rs 17.51 crore). North Kashmir districts—often newer entrants to the bunker programme—lagged far behind, with Kupwara (Rs 14.85 crore), Bandipora (Rs 4.33 crore) and Baramulla (Rs 4.15 crore).

Despite delays, officials confirmed that 9,500 bunkers have been completed along the border. These structures were instrumental in minimising civilian casualties during last month’s intense shelling, which left 27 dead and 70 injured, mostly in Poonch and Rajouri. The violence followed India’s missile strikes across the border under Operation Sindoor, conducted in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 25 tourists and a local driver.

The Central government had first sanctioned 14,460 bunkers for Rs 415.73 crore in 2018–19, covering LoC-facing villages in Poonch and Rajouri and IB sectors in Jammu, Samba and Kathua. In subsequent phases, an additional 4,000 bunkers were cleared for vulnerable regions of North Kashmir.

But data shows a sharp drop in spending in the last three years. In 2020–21, the Jammu and Kashmir spent Rs 48.81 crore on bunkers, followed by Rs 33.18 crore in 2021–22, but only Rs 22.75 crore in 2022–23, Rs 8.46 crore in 2023–24, and Rs 16.46 crore in the current fiscal.