Chief Secretary stresses for timely completion of roads projects across J&K

SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, on thursday chaired a meeting to take stock of ongoing works on various roads and bridges taken under PMGSY, CRIF, NABARD and UT Capex across Jammu and Kashmir.

Secretary, PWD; Secretary, Law; Engineer-in-Chief; Deputy Commissioners; Chief Engineers besides senior officers from the concerned department attended the meeting.

Outstation officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

The Chief Secretary, during this meeting, enquired about the starting dates of works on these Roads and Bridges taken under different phases of PM Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Central Road Infrastructure Fund (CRIF), NABARD funding and UT Capex.

He noted that the work on remaining 11 habitations under phase-I of PMGSY needs to be expedited under every circumstances besides strenuous efforts should be made to complete works on Long Span Bridges (LSBs) under progress in various districts of J&K.

Dulloo observed that since reorganization of department, there is sufficient manpower including senior engineers available in peripheral areas. He maintained that this should entail into better supervision and quality outcomes for the department.

He exhorted upon the senior functionaries of PWD like Chief Engineers and SEs to take field visits on regular basis to remain updated of works being undertaken in their respective jurisdictions. He stressed on ensuring timely completion of projects by closely monitoring their pace on ground.

The Chief Secretary also advised the officers to take swift actions in resolution of bottlenecks like land compensation, seeking forest clearances or other contractor related concerns. He asked them to avail the assistance of divisional/district administrations for executing swift actions on ground.

In his presentation Secretary, PWD, gave an overview of the works in progress under these programs. He highlighted the achievements made by the department in past few years regarding completion of roads, bridges and blacktopping of thousands of kilometers of riding surfaces all across the UT.

He informed the meeting that under PMGSY I & II 18, 205 Kms of road length and 217 LSBs stands completed connecting 2129 habitations in J&K. Under PMGSY-III, 1207 kms of road length, 66 LSBs are currently at different stages of completion, he added.

It was further given out that the department is making all efforts to take up the 1820 unconnected habitations under PMGSY-IV having around 100-250 households as per 2011 census.

It was revealed that 294 projects had been taken under CRIF at a cumulative cost of Rs 4317 Cr of which 173 works stands completed till date.

Regarding the Bridge Program, it was revealed that 143 LSBs at a sanctioned cost of Rs 515.54 Cr were undertaken, out of which 36 have been completed and more 36 are slated to be finished by the end 9f this financial year.

Among the targets for 2024-25 it was given out that macadamization of 5000 Kms of road length under various central & UT sector schemes would be achieved,100 bridges sanctioned under various schemes, 2338 works under UT Capex, 200 Roads/Bridges sanctioned under NABARD besides completion of 1100 Kms of road length under PMGSY would also be completed during this period.