Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 5: The much talked about Comprehensive Mobility Plans for the capital cities of the State are at the final stages and the Government has constituted a High Power Committee headed by Chief Secretary to closely supervise the implementation, which, if the things go smoothly, is likely to begin from next year.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on the instructions of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, the Planning and Development Department has obtained comments from majority of the departments on the draft mobility plans, which were submitted to the Chief Minister by M/s RITES Ltd early last month at Union Capital.
“All these comments have been forwarded to M/s RITES Ltd with the direction to get ready for its response during a joint presentation of all stakeholders so that State Government gets final plans and moves forward to decongest the capital cities by implementing the varied recommendations of M/s RITES”, sources said while disclosing that joint presentation, which would be attended by Administrative Secretaries and Heads of Departments, is being planned during the current month itself.
It is pertinent to mention here that M/s RITES Ltd is a Government of India enterprise providing comprehensive engineering consultancy and project management services in the transport infrastructure sector and it was engaged by the State Government to prepare mobility plans for capital cities in August 2010.
During the joint presentation, M/s RITES Ltd would explain in details various aspects of the mobility plans and the feasibility to incorporate or reject the suggestions made by different departments, sources said, adding “following the joint presentation exercise to give final touches to the Comprehensive Mobility Plans would begin”.
In response to a question, the sources said that on the receipt of Mobility Plans from M/s RITES, Planning and Development Department would move the Cabinet to seek its approval. “If the things go smoothly the exercise towards implementation of Mobility Plans in phases would begin during the current financial year—before ending March 31, 2013”, sources added.
Highlighting the importance of Comprehensive Mobility Plans, sources said, “the Asian Development Bank while negotiating with the State Government with regard to improvement in urban infrastructure particularly urban transport through a multi-tranche loan facility, had suggested the J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) to prepare a City Mobility Plan, which could explain or demonstrate the importance and relevance of construction of multi-storey parking facilities and construction of fly-overs”.
In the draft mobility plans, M/s RITES has identified areas requiring focus attention to improve and upgrade traffic management. It has suggested short and long term measures for improvement of transport scenario in the cities and has flagged critical infrastructure needs for upgrading mobility within the cities keeping in view the traffic growth and consequent challenges up to 2030.
It has also suggested implementation of mass transport system like Monorail, Bus Rapid Transport System, In-land Water Ways transport system, development of parking spaces and widening of roads.
As the final Mobility Plans for the capital cities are all set to be ready shortly, the Government has constituted a High Power Committee to oversee the implementation of the plans in Jammu and Srinagar cities.
Chief Secretary is the Chairman of the Committee while as Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department is its Member Secretary. The members of the committee are Financial Commissioner, Finance Department, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Commissioner Secretary, Tourism Department, Commissioner Secretary PHE Department, Commissioner Secretary R&B Department, Commissioner Secretary Revenue Department and IGP Traffic.
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