A Builder of Roads, and Lives, in South Kashmir

With mud on his boots and no PR team, a young Kashmiri engineer is doing what decades of policy couldn't

- Mohammad Amin Mir

In Kralmad, a village tucked under the Pir Panjal in South Kashmir, people speak of a man who doesn't sit in offices. He builds them.

Gowhar Ahmad Mir is 36. A computer engineer by training. A contractor by profession. A local hero by default. He walks to work in dusty shoes, rolls up his sleeves, and calls his workers by name.

In a place long defined by absence—of jobs, of leaders, of plans that last—his presence is starting to change things.

“He didn’t leave,” said Abdul Rahim, an elderly farmer leaning against a stone wall. “That's all it took to matter here.”

After earning his engineering degree, Gowhar could have gone the usual route—Srinagar, Delhi, Dubai. He stayed.

In 2010, he registered a small construction group under a government-backed self-help scheme. No capital. No machines. Just borrowed tools and a handful of local youth who believed him when he said, “We can build this ourselves.”

Today, his firm handles public infrastructure projects across the Doru tehsil—roads, classrooms, irrigation canals, community centers. He employs over 50 men, most from nearby villages. Many had no income before.

“He gave me my first job,” said Waseem Ahmad, 28, who now manages field operations. “And he told me, learn everything. One day you'll lead.”