Governor S P Malik today inaugurated the second phase of Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover.
The flyover stretch spanning 1.04 km from Rambagh to AlochiBagh has been constructed at a cost of Rs 37.5 crore.
Congratulating executives of Jammu and Kashmir EconomicReconstruction Agency, Governor said that the third and last phase of theflyover will be completed by or before June end. He observed that this stretchof 1.04 km would provide much-awaited relief to commuters from Rambagh toAlochi Bagh and regulate traffic at Rambagh, Solina, Alochi Bagh and on theRambagh Bridge.
Advisors to Governor Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, K.K. Sharma, K.Skandan, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, Principal Secretary to GovernorUmang Narula,; Principal Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring RohitKansal, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir;
Baseer Khan, Mayor Srinagar Municipal Corporation JunaidAzim Mattu, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary,
CEO ERA Raghav Langer were present on the occasion.
Once completed, the 2.4 kilometre flyover with six accessramps at Jehangir Chowk, Gogji Bagh, Alochi Bagh, Rambagh, Natipora andBarzulla will substantially decongest city traffic and reduce travel timebetween Jehangir Chowk and Rambagh from about 45 minutes to 2.5 minutes.According to JKERA officials, second phase of the flyover is expected to resultin substantial traffic relief to commuters traveling from areas across thisstretch towards Lal Chowk.
To mention, the executing agency has missed severaldeadlines to complete this project. Recently, a RTI reply has revealed theconstruction cost of Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh (JCRB) flyover has escalated by Rs131 crores in addition to the original project cost of Rs 200.74 crore. In 2013when the work on the JCR flyover started, the project cost was Rs. 200.74crore, but it escalated to Rs 331 crores after missing several deadlines.
The flyover project was supposed to be completed withinthree years with September 2016 as the first deadline, which later got extendedto March 2017. In 2016, work on the project was hampered due to law and orderproblem in Kashmir.