Srinagar: Governor N N Vohra today reviewed the progress of the
upcoming Ring Road Projects which will open new economic
opportunities and decongest vehicular traffic in the twin capital cities of
Jammu and Srinagar.
Chairing a high-level meeting at the Civil Secretariat here this evening,
Governor called upon the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)
and the concerned Departments of the State Government to adopt a
well-coordinated and focused approach for ensuring that the twin
projects, part of the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP),
are completed within the stipulated timeframe of 3 years.
Advisorsto Governor BB Vyas and Khurshid Ahmed Ganai and Chief
Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam participated in the meeting and made
valuable suggestions on how to remove the bottlenecks and expedite
the projects.
Governor asked NHAI to ensure that both projects go ahead at full
speedand promptly inform Chief Secretary if any difficulty was faced in
implementation so that the same are addressed with a sense of
urgency.
The work on Jammu Ring Road Project started earlier this year and the
work on Srinagar Project is expected to commence in the coming
weeks.
Officers said the total length of the project is 58.255 km in Jammu from
Raya Morh to Nagrota of which 47.160 km are in the plains and 11.095
km fall in hilly areas. In Srinagar, the project length is 60.942 kms which
will be taken up in two packages; one from Gallander which ends at
Sumbal road junction (42.10 km length) and the second from Sumbal
road junction to Wayul junction on existing NH-1D (19 km approx).
Governor asked the engineers to be imaginative in planning the road
alignments as relatively longer roads may actually cost less than shorter
roads which have more bridges and more culverts and which involve
cutting of more trees. “We are committed to ensuring that the
minimum number of trees, cultivable and forest land comes under
mega-developmental projects in our eco-fragile state,” Governor
observed.
The NHAI, the executing agency for two projects, briefed Governor
about the status of the work on the twin roads coming up at a
cumulative cost of nearly Rs 4000 crores.
The NHAI officers said that once the land is handed over to them in
Kashmir, their engineering teams will urgently get down to the work
and other issues relating to shifting of utilities, like electricity supply
and water connections will also be resolved.
Principal Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring, Rohit Kansal,
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Commissioner
Secretary PWD, Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Commissioner Secretary
Revenue, Shahid Ananyatullah, Commissioner Secretary Forests,
Saurabh Bhagat, District Development Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Abid
Rasheed, District Development Commissioner Budgam, Dr Sehrish
Asgar, Regional Head NHAI, Hem Raj, Chief Engineers and other
concerned officers were also present in the meeting
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma and Deputy
Commissioners of Jammu, Samba, Ganderbal, Budgam, Bandipora,
Pulwama and Baramulla attended the meeting through video-
conferencing.
