Jammu, Oct 11: To assess the progress on widening of Batote–Kishtwar Highway, the Minister for Transport and CA&PD Qamar Ali Akhoon  along with a high level team of officers today inspected the entire accident prone stretch from Batote to Doda and gave on-the-spot directions to complete the widening work by December 2009.
 The blacktopping work would however get delayed due to the onset of winters, he was informed.
 The Minister directed BEACON authorities to start blacktopping of the stretch where widening has been completed simultaneously.
 He expressed satisfaction over the work on the alternate road alignment at Assar and was assured by the BEACON authorities that one-way traffic will be allowed on this newly constructed stretch within one week.
 Regarding installation of crash barriers at vulnerable points the Minister gave on-the-spot directions to the BEACON authorities to install the crash barriers, barrells, sign boards on Batote–Kishtwar highway by the end of November 2009.
 Reiterating the government’s commitment of taking measures to minimize road accidents, Akhoon said that rules to issue permits have been relaxed for private passenger buses and matadors for the erstwhile Doda district and for this J&K  Bank has been asked to be more liberal while  financing such loans.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 IST