90 breaches caused by floods in Jhelum plugged

By
Daily Excelsior
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Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 3: Nearly 90 breaches caused by the September-2014 floods in Jehlum River have been plugged by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
This was revealed during a review meeting held by the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon with the Chief Engineer of Irrigation and Flood Control, Javed Jaffar and officers of concerned departments.
The meeting was called to identify bottlenecks in the process of restoration of Jhelum and flood channel as well as strengthening and beautifying the river banks.
Giving details about the process of dredging in Jhelum, the I&FC Department officials said the project has been awarded to a Kolkata-based firm and the work is going on at war-footing basis.
Dr Samoon was informed that around 5.86 lakh cubic metres have been excavated against the target of 8 lakh cubic metres.
The project envisages dredging of 7 lakh cubic metres in Srinagar stretch of Jhelum to be completed in 12 months while 9 lakh cubic metres will be excavated from Baramulla stretch in 20 months.
“The target of about 5.86 lakh out of the proposed 16 lakh has been achieved in the last four months. The work is going on in full swing and it will not be impacted in any way due to increase in water level during summers,” Chief Engineer (I&FC) said.
According to officials, the Government will spent Rs 399 crore for two years on the restoration of Jhelum with Rs 140 crore set aside for land/structure acquisition, Rs 40 crore for building two bridges, Rs 35 crore for dredging and the rest will be spent on other works. The state share in the allocation is Rs 120 crore.
It was also revealed during the meeting that the Centre’s share in the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program 2015, “Comprehensive Plan for Flood Management Works on Jhelum-Phase-I” has not been released so far.
Dr Samoon was informed that the I&FC Department is preparing a detailed project report which envisages building storage dams on the tributaries of the river which will be used in times of emergency to divert the water flowing into the river.

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