Chief Secretary reviews upgradation, realignment of important roads

Jammu, Sep 28: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Saturday held a detailed meeting with the stakeholders to take stock of the steps being taken for improvement and realignment of some of the important road projects as per the standards of NHAI.
The meeting was attended by the senior functionaries from J&K government including ACS Jal Shakti/ FC Revenue; ACS, Forests; Principal Secretary, APD; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir/Jammu; Secretary, R&B; Secretary, Revenue; concerned Deputy Commissioners; RO, NHAI; concerned Project Directors besides other officers.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary had a project wise appraisal of progress made on this account, so far. He enquired about the issues faced in current alignments and the details of all other possible solutions devised by the agency along with the revised costs to be incurred on them.
Dulloo impressed upon the concerned to make public-interest the paramount driving force while going ahead with the decisions of implementing these road projects. He maintained that such projects are devised make commuting a better experience.
He took note of the changes proposed by NHAI and sought feedback from other participants about the best possible mechanism to implement them on ground.
Regional Officer, NHAI, RS Yadav, gave a detailed presentation on the current length and status of each road project. He also threw light on the status of environment, forest, R&B, and other clearances to be sought for execution of these projects.
The meeting was apprised of the need of land acquisition for these projects. It further gave an overview of the bridges, flyovers, via-ducts or tunnels to be made in each of the alignment proposed for the given project.
The existing road length and infrastructure was also deliberated upon besides discussing various options for saving the travel time.
Moreover, development of inter-district connectivity, significance with respect to tourism, chainage-wise green field/brown field sections and other strategic concerns were discussed for each of these projects to be taken up for development in the UT.