Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Oct 18: Latti Development Committee has (LDC) has urged upon the State R&B authorities for the early completion of remote Bandol-Pattangarh Road in Dudu-Chenani area of district Udhampur.
Members of the Committee in a meeting held under the leadership of its chairman, Kasturi Lal Gupta at Latti disclosed that this 13 kms road was sanctioned by the Govt under PMGSY during last year. Hardly 3 km earth work has been done on this road by the contractor and now the work has been stopped due to non-forest clearance. They said that PMGSY officials claim that documents have been submitted to the Forest Department for necessary clearance while Conservator of Forests Jammu has said that PMGSY has not submitted the papers till date. The Committee has sought the intervention of Forest Minister Ch Lal Singh and R&B Minister, Naeem Akhtar for expediting the process of forest clearance of this road.
Executive Engineer PMGSY, Suman Bhaskar when contacted said that 13.8 kms Road project under Phase 10 of the PMGSY worth Rs 9.26 crore was sanctioned during last year. About 10% work progress has been achieved so far on it. He said the Forest and PMGSY team conducted a joint survey on nearly 2 kms forest area in first week of April this year and the compensation is being worked out by the Forest Department, Chenani. He said the file was submitted to the concerned Range office at Chenani and some objections have been raised by the concerned DFO pertaining to dumping of `Malba’ and it has been returned.
Bhaskar further disclosed that this Road length from Bandol (Dudu Block) to Upper Pattan Garh is 13.8 kms and from Chenani to Pattangarh the road is motorable. With this link, the distance between Dudu/Latti and Chenani will be reduced from 56 kms to just 38 kms.
Divisional Forest Officer, Udhampur, Jugal Kishore when contacted said that his office has not yet received the papers from the office of Executive Engineer PMGSY concerned despite the fact that joint survey was conducted on April 2 this year. He said as and when the documents are submitted, the same day will be forwarded to the Conservator of Forests West Circle, Jammu. From there, the papers would be placed before the State level clearance committee. He said the PMGSY authorities should apply for Forest clearance before launching work on any road project which falls in forest area. The procedure is bit lengthy and the project consumes lot of time for completion.
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