Srinagar, Aug 6: The much-needed impetus has been given to the Rs 58,000 crore Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) as a result of which 20 projects undertaken under this package have been completed while 13 more are likely to be completed this year.
As per the official document of Jammu and Kashmir government, 20 projects have been completed while 13 projects are to be completed this year of which four projects are being executed by the agencies of Government of India and nine by the J&K government.
The PM’s package was announced on 7 November 2015 by Prime Minister NarendaModi.
The package was announced when Jammu and Kashmir was a state and following the bifurcation of J&K into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh, the package was divided.
Earlier PMDP had 63 projects with an outlay of Rs 80,068 crore.
However, post bifurcation, J&K got 53 projects with an outlay of 58,477 crore.
Nine projects were transferred to Ladakh with an outlay of Rs 21,441 crore.
One project of relocation of 216 transit camps was dropped out from PMDP as per the latest report on PMDP progress.
As per the official data, in December 2019, around 46 percent funds were spent under the package while seven projects have already been completed.
“By the end of 2021, 90 percent will be spent,” said an official. “The package is a separate allocation and is reflected in the individual department’s budget.”
He said that the remaining 34 projects are at different stages of execution of which 20 have been completed which includes eight projects scheduled to be completed by 2021 end.
Officials said that the Lt Governor had directed the Administrative Secretaries to closely monitor the execution of all PMDP projects and have a regular review of the progress made thereon to remove the bottlenecks, if any.
“The Lt Governor passed strict directions for speeding up on the ground implementation for early completion of works. The Lt Governor also called for regular monitoring and submission of progress reports on a monthly basis. The LG maintained that sectoral progress should be monitored regularly to avoid unnecessary delay,” they said.
However, according to officials, two mega projects in Kashmir – the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and the Ring Road – announced under the PMDP in 2015 for Kashmir have seen very little progress since the announcement of the development package.