Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 12: The Border Roads Organisation has handed over the maintenance of the arterial Jammu-Srinagar road to the National Highways Authority of India, a senior official of the organisation said here today.
“Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH-44) has been handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI),” Brigadier A K Dass, Chief Engineer of Project Beacon, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) said.
He said the organisation was now only entrusted with the responsibility of a small portion of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and not the entire stretch of road.
“BRO only looks after the maintenance of the Jawahar Tunnel on the highway,” he said.
Dass said the NH 44 has been handed over to NHAI in stages and the BRO has been assigned the responsibility of clearing the snow on the National Highway from Banihal to Jawahar Tunnel and Jawahar Tunnel to Qazigund.
Regarding Sumbal-Sonarwani road, the BRO Chief Engineer said the road was handed over to the organisation in 2011 for maintenance.
“Lot of work has been done to improve the riding surface of the road. There are various issues which have not been settled by the state administration like shifting of electric poles, land acquisition and drainage system, which led to undue delay in the construction of the road,” he said.
Dass added that taking into account all these issues, it was decided that the road be handed back to the state Public Works Department for further maintenance which could solve the local problems pertaining to road construction more effectively.
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