Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, July 21: Latti Development Committee (LDC) has urged upon the R&B authorities for the early completion of remote Bandol-Pattangarh Road in Chenani area of district Udhampur.
Members of the Committee in a meeting held under the leadership of its chairman, Kasturi Lal Gupta at Latti the other day, alleged 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 DFO Udhampur claimed 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.
Executive Engineer PMGSY, Ramnagar Suman Bhaskar, executing the work on the road when contacted said that 13.8 kms Road project under Phase X of the PMGSY worth Rs 9.26 crore was sanctioned during last year. About 8 % work progress has been achieved by the end of June 2017. He said the Forest and PMGSY team did a joint survey on nearly 2 kms Forest area on April 2, 2017 and the compensation is being worked out by the Forest department, Chenani.
Mr Bhaskar further disclosed that this Road length from Bandhol (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 received the papers from PMGSY so far. He said as and when the documents are submitted, the same will be forwarded to the Conservator of Forests West Circle Jammu immediately. 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.
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