No truck halts at Nagrota, Qazigund: CS

Jammu: Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta Saturday impressed upon the traffic authorities to completely do away with the halting of trucks at Nagrota and Qazigund on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and instead let them ply smoothly without putting any forced halt to their movement either way between Srinagar and Jammu.

An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that Mehta made these remarks in a meeting with different stakeholders called for reviewing the progress of construction of National Highways under Prime Minister Development Programme across J&K.

   

He stressed upon the executing agencies to complete all these road projects providing interconnectivity to different regions in a stipulated timeframe.

The chief secretary enjoined upon them that the significance of these roads was very high and deserved all efforts to be completed on time.

He directed the concerned authorities to strictly stick to the timeline of completing the expressway to Akhnoor in all respects by May this year so that the travel time to reach there gets reduced to half an hour.

Mehta said that this road was going to play a vital role in bringing this circuit on the tourism map of J&K and increase the footfall to this location considerably.

Regarding the Delhi-Katra Expressway, he directed for continuing the momentum of work besides meeting timelines set for completing different sub-projects.

The chief secretary said that this road project was of national importance as it leads to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine that is visited by millions of yatirs every year.

He said that the work on such a prestigious project should be given due priority for completing it at the earliest.

Mehta also sensitised the executing agencies about the significance of Uri-Poonch Highway.

He said that the work on this project should be taken in hand at the earliest so that it was also completed on time, bringing respite to people besides providing alternate route between the two divisions of J&K.

As far as the movement of traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu NH is concerned, the chief secretary directed for ensuring its smooth movement all across the road by properly maintaining the 6 km difficult stretch between Ramban and Banihal.

He advised them to use necessary manpower and machinery efficiently besides exploring few dry days for traffic to make the travel on this road pleasant and hassle free for all times to come.

Mehta also took note of the work done on the Srinagar-Pulwama-Shopian-Kulgam Highway (NH-444).

He stressed on completing the stretches near all the towns of Shopian, Kulgam, and Pulwama so that the road was complete before the onset of the tourism season this year.

The chief secretary said that the highway was going to drastically reduce the time taken for traveling to and fro and to reach to Srinagar.

He also took stock of the progress made in execution of Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri Highway, Chenani-Sudhmahadev-Goha- Khellani and Akhnoor-Poonch Highways and stressed on their early completion.

Mehta directed the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to facilitate the executing agencies in performing their work smoothly.

He said that these highways were directly linked with the economic upliftment of the people as the trade and commerce would also see growth by enhanced movement of the people.

The chief secretary pointed out that the tourism sector was going to be the biggest gainer by their completion.

He enquired from the executing agencies about the bottlenecks affecting the pace of their work.

Mehta instantly passed on directions to the concerned government departments for taking the measures to address them.

He said that both the executing agencies and different government departments should work in coordination with each other and held regular deliberations for resolving issues without wasting time.

The chief secretary asked them to own these significant national projects and show eagerness in seeing them completed well on time.

He fixed timelines for each of the road project for its completion.

Principal Secretary PWD, Principal Secretary Forest, Divisional Commissioners, concerned Deputy Commissioners, representatives from NHAI, NHIDCL, BRO, and other concerned officers were also present on the occasion.

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