Completion of highways: Chief Secy seeks fortnightly updates

Srinagar, May 22: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Thursday held a detailed meeting with NHAI, NHIDCL, Beacon and Project SAMPARK and sought reports from the executing agencies to furnish fortnightly reports about both the physical and financial progress registered in each project.
The meeting was attended by ACS, Forests; Principal Secretary, Finance and APD; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir/Jammu; Secretary, R&B; Deputy Commissioners; Chief Engineers of PWD, representatives from NHAI, BRO, NHIDCL and other concerned officers.
The meeting took stock of progress made, so far, in completion of different National Highway projects across the length and breadth of the UT.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary maintained that these projects are being monitored at highest level for effective implementation. He asked for furnishing the weekly reports to the PWD and biweekly to his office for regular monitoring of these vital projects for completion on time.
He enjoined upon these agencies to ensure that those responsible for delays should also be pointed out in these reports as the lackadaisical approach on anybody’s part would be viewed seriously and action initiated against the non-performers.
Dulloo asked for working in double shifts wherever necessary and assured of all possible assistance on part of the district and divisional administration.
The Chief Secretary directed the Department of Mining to ensure that short term permits for mining of material to complete these highways are used exclusively for this purpose. He asked for marking all the vehicles carrying such material with RFID tags so that their monitoring becomes easy and efficient to curb itsillegal use.
The Chief Secretary had a project wise appraisal of progress made, so Shubhham far. He enquired about the possible date of completion of work on each phase of these projects along with the current scenario of physical progress registered in each of them.
Principal Secretary, Finance, Shailendra Kumar, while speaking in the meeting, impressed upon the concerned Deputy Commissioners to assist the agencies in identification of blocks for regular supply of the mining material required for completion of these vital road projects.
He asked these agencies to deploy more men and machinery in these sites and add as many working hours as possible to meet the set deadlines. He made out that only regular monitoring of the projects would fructify into their completion on time.
Some of the reviewed projects of NHAI included different phases of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, work on the tunnel being constructed on Ring Road Jammu, Ramban-Banihal section of NH-44, Marog-Digdol and Digdol-Khuni MakeNallah tunnels, Makarkot-Sher bibi viaduct and different phases of Ring Road Srinagar.
The road projects of NHIDCL included completion of Zojila Tunnel, Jammu-Akhnoor Road, Chenani- Sudhmahadev Road, Goha-Khellani, Khellani-Khanabal Highway and Singhpoora-Vailoo tunnel.
The projects executed by BRO under project Beacon and Sampark which came up for discussion included Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri Highway, Rafiabad-Kupwara-Tangdhar Highway, Surankot-Narbal Highway, Khanabal-Baltal Highway, Akhnoor-Poonch Highway, Shopian-Surankot, Rajouri-Thanamandi-Surankot, Budhal-Mahore-Gul Road along with others.
The assessed R&B projects included construction of Flyover Sanat Nagar, Srinagar-Budgam-Pulwama-Shopian-Kulgam-Qazigund (NH-444) road, construction of by-passes for three main towns of Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian besides other road safety and strengthening works currently going on in different parts of the UT.