Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 12: Giving a major push to road connectivity across Jammu and Kashmir, the UT government is ensuring construction of 20 Km road length and macadamization of 15 Km road stretch every single day.
Besides, 100 bridges are under construction for making an end to frequent traffic congestion & ensuring smooth vehicular movement.
The initiative is in line with the vision of government to provide all urban facilities in rural areas by 2023.
The ranking of Jammu and Kashmir among the top performers in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is testimony to the efforts of J&K government towards streamlining road connectivity.
The road construction in Jammu and Kashmir picked up pace after 2019 with focused attention of the government on major highways in three years. The initiative considerably reduced the travel time between major destinations across the Union Territory.
During the past two years, road and tunnel infrastructure has been prioritized and around one lakh crore is being spent to build a robust road network. Jammu and Kashmir has also set a new record of constructing 6,450 km of road length and achieved third rank in the target of longest road length in the country.
Significantly in 2022 for the second consecutive year, J&K has successfully maintained its national ranking as J&K was once again ranked among top three performing states/UTs at the national level for construction of road length per year under the PMGSY.
With construction of three of the six tunnels, including the strategic Z-Morh tunnel expected to be completed by mid-2023, road connectivity between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India is set to get a big leg up.
Four of the six tunnels are coming up on National Highway-244, connecting Jammu to Anantnag. These included Khellani tunnel, the KM 83 tunnel, Sudhmahadev-Dranga tunnel and Singhpora-Vailoo tunnel. Once the four tunnels are ready, travel time between Jammu and Anantnag will get reduced from the current 11-12 hours to 6 hours.
The remaining two tunnels on NH-1, the strategically crucial Zojila and Z-Morh, will provide all-weather road connectivity between Srinagar and Kargil.
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