Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 26: The Government today admitted that 150 buses were purchased under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme for cities of Jammu and Srinagar and these buses were playing on various inter-state and inter-district routes besides on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies, Nawang Rigzin Jora while responding to a question of PDP Member Naeem Akhtar in the Upper House disclosed that under the JNNURM Scheme, the Central Government had provided funds to streamline the Urban Transport system, in Srinagar and Jammu cities.
Mr Jora further revealed that under this scheme, 150 buses (Tata LPO-TC, 50 seater and Tata LP-712 -19 seater) were purchased with the approved specification of MoUD/JNNURM. He also admitted that these buses were placed at the disposal of J&K State Road Transport Corporation for operations and maintenance.
In response to a supplementary of Mr Akhtar, the Minister said that these buses were not plying on the city routes in Srinagar and Jammu but presently plying on inter-state and inter- district routes besides Jammu-Srinagar section of the highway. He claimed that both cities are congested and the SRTC was facing massive losses. This may improve the economic health of the Corporation.
In response to another question, Mr Jora admitted that Centre provided massive funds under JNNURM to the State and many works could not be completed in give time frame. He said initially, the target date for completion of the schemes/ projects was March 2012 but the Ministry has extended the time up to March 2014 and all the projects are expected to be completed within extended period. He added that for new projects under transition phase, the period of completion is March 2017.
Giving more details, Mr Jora said that an amount of Rs 520 crore ( new + ongoing projects), is the allocation for the year 2014. About 14 projects costing Rs 823 crore have been sponsored during 2013-14. The Ministry has released an amount of Rs 109.38 crore for ongoing projects this year. To a question regarding third party monitoring of these works and any deviations made by NBCC in sewerage projects, Mr Jora said that deviations reported by the Third party monitoring consultants are being discussed in the quarterly meetings and project executing agencies are being instructed to adhere to the guidelines of the scheme and carry on the rectifications.
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