*Chairs meeting on Centrally sponsored road schemes
Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 9: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today chaired a high-level meeting to assess the current progress and status of the Centrally sponsored road schemes in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Chairman Deepak Kumar, Member Niraj Verma and CGM Navin Kumar from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), N.N. Sinha, Sanjeev Mallik and Pradeep Sharma from National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), A.S. Rathore, Neeraj Karki and P.K.H. Singh from Border Roads Organization (BRO), P. Mohanasundaram from National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA), Dr. Surabhi Rai from Union Ministry of Rural Development and Chief Engineer P.K. Srivastava from Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The State Government was represented by MoS Public Works (Roads & Buildings) with Independent charge of Transport, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Pr. Secretary Sanjeev Verma from Department of Public Works (R&B), Chief Engineer (R&B) J&K Sudheer Shah, Chief Engineer (PMGSY) J&K S.K. Manhas and several senior officers of the State.
The highlights of the meeting were PowerPoint presentation made by NHIDCL about the projects in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Similarly, presentations were also made by MoRTH, PMGSY, BRO and NHAI. In a detailed review lasting over one hour, virtually all the ongoing and planned road projects in the State came up for discussion.
A common observation made by the Central Government representatives was that the State Government ought to increase the pace of spending and expenditure so that the funds from the Central Government could be released on time and the execution of the work could be expedited. This, according to them, could also prevent the inflation of budget and at the same time, ensure the timely completion of projects. The Central Government representatives also raised concern about the delayed submission of DPRs by the State Government Authorities.
However, in response, the State Government officials assured that the pace of expenditure on the works has increased in the last few months and DPR process is also being expedited. Regarding another issue of delay on account of land acquisition for the road projects, the State Officials conveyed that very soon a joint meeting will be held for on-the-spot disposal of all the pending cases.
Dr Jitendra Singh suggested use of Space technology for preparing DPRs and UCs.
About the Batote-Kishtwar road, for which Rs.95 crore has been sanctioned from CRF, it was decided that, to begin with, immediately work should be started on those stretches of the road which are more accident prone, particularly in view of the frequent fatal accidents experienced in the recent past. This suggestion was accepted by all concerned and it was assured that soon it will be implemented. The issue of delay in Jammu-Akhnoor Highway and the construction of the Akhnoor bridge also came up. It was finally assured that the issues leading to the delay in both the cases have been sought to be overcome and the work on Akhnoor bridge will most likely start by February 2018.
The 15 kms stretch of road from Khilaini to Humbal in district Doda, Dr Jitendra Singh was informed, will also be taken up on priority very soon and the Humbal-Deedini road will also be included in the proposal.
The ambitious road project from Bhagwa to Lal Draman in district Doda has been taken up by BRO and the process will be initiated to convert it from ‘Priority-2’ to ‘Priority-1’ for early execution. Similarly, the BRO authorities informed Dr Jitendra Singh that the ambitious Chhatergalla tunnel project has been included in the approved list and the State Authorities have been asked to submit the DPR for the same.
Dr Jitendra Singh was also informed that for the year 2017-18, the Central Road Fund proposals for the State of Jammu & Kashmir amounting to Rs.1600 crore have been submitted, out of which over Rs.375 crore are earmarked for the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency. He was also informed that the historic Express Road Corridor project from Delhi to Katra via Amritsar, which was approved by his initiative at the cost of over Rs.50,000 crore, has also been taken up and DPR for survey process is going on.
The NHAI informed that the Ring-road projects, both for Srinagar as well as Jammu, are being pursued earnestly and will be taken up as per the scheduled time-frame.
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