Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 20: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would address the Council of Ministry at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) at Srinagar in the afternoon of June 25, the first day of their two days visit to the State. They will also meet some important delegations in the SKICC.
According to revised official schedule of the visit of Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi, they wouldn’t be inaugurating Mughal Road and Uri-II power project or visiting Choglan in Leh, which was part of their previous itinerary.
Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad accompanied by IGP Jammu Zone, Rajesh Kumar and DIG Doda-Ramban range Ashkoor Wani today visited Banihal railway station in Ramban district and Chougan Ground in Kishtwar where the Prime Minister and the AICC (I) president would inaugurate prestigious Banihal-Qazigund railway line and lay foundation stone of Ratle Hydro Electric Power Project. They would address public meetings at both the places.
Mr Prasad and other senior police officers reviewed security preparedness for the VVIP functions at both the places. Elite Special Protection Group (SPG) would take over security of both the venues a day before the visit. However, para-military and police personnel have been deployed at Banihal and Kishtwar well in advance.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi would reach Udhampur airfield at about 9.30 am on June 25 and would be received by senior political leadership and bureaucrats of the State. From Udhampur, they would fly to Kishtwar in choppers.
They would lay foundation stone of Ratle Hydro Electric Power Project at Chougan Ground at 10.30 am and then address a public meeting at the same venue. Ratle power project is being constructed at Drabshalla, about 25 kilometers from Kishtwar.
Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi would leave for Srinagar from Kishtwar where they would have lunch at Nehru Guest House. They would proceed to SKICC in the afternoon, where they would meet delegations and release a stamp on famous Kashmiri poet Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor coinciding with his 125th birthday.
They would meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and address the Council of Ministry headed by him at the SKICC. Sources said the Chief Minister could project demands of the State before the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson during the meeting.
Sources said Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi would review pace of development works including Centrally Sponsored projects and Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan (PMRP).
The Prime Minister would have a detailed review of security and political scenario of the State in his meeting with the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministry.
The Chief Minister would host a dinner in the honour of the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson at SKICC on June 25, which would also be attended by selected dignitaries from political and bureaucratic circles.
Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi would have a night halt at Raj Bhawan. They would discuss the situation of the State with the Governor in detail.
Sources said on January 26 morning, Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi would fly to Banihal in Ramban district of Jammu region, where they would inaugurate Banihal-Qazigund railway line and address a public meeting before flying back to Udhampur on way to New Delhi.
Sources said Mughal road inauguration has been deleted from the schedule of Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi as some work was still left on the project.
The Qazigund-Banihal railway line has been completed by the Railways including an 11 kilometers Pir Panchal railway tunnel, which is longest in India and connects village Cheral in Banihal tehsil of Jammu and Qazigund in Kashmir.
Presently, the train service is operating between Baramulla to Qazigund in Kashmir and Jammu to Udhampur in Jammu. The Government of India has set the deadline of 2018 for completion of Jammu-Baramulla railway line to link the Kashmir Valley by train with rest of the India. While the train would reach Katra anytime this year, the DMU train from Qazigund to Banihal would start chugging after inauguration of the railway line by the Prime Minister on June 25 during his one day visit to the Kashmir Valley.
Sources said Baramulla-Banihal railway line would considerably reduce the travel distance and would help the people travel by train up to Banihal from Kashmir and then take bus on way to Jammu.
Banihal-Qazigund railway line comprised India’s longest 11.2 kilometers tunnel running through Pir Panchal ranges.
It has been built at the cost of Rs 1300 crores and would reduce distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 17 kilometers. Banihal-Qazigund railway line was initially due to complete in 2009 and has been delayed by about three and a half years.
The 850 mw Ratle Hydro Electric Power Project, whose foundation stone would be laid by Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi is first project awarded through a tariff based competitive bidding process and first private sector investment in power sector in the State.
A PTI report said the 240 mw Uri-II power project being built by the State-run National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC), which was to have been operationalised after being inaugurated by the Prime Minister, is believed to have hit a last minute snag in its functioning during trial runs.
The NHPC, during the trial runs, found a lot of slit near head as well as at the rear tunnel during the mandatory pre-testing on June 18 ahead of a VVIP visit, according to sources today. The project, second on river Jhelum in Uri town, is located downstream of 480-MW Uri-I.
Uri-II would have helped NHPC to increase its hydropower generation capacity to 1,920 MW in J and K from five projects in the state. The other four projects are 690-MW Salal, 480-MW Uri-I, 390-MW Dulhasti and 120-MW Sewa-II.
NHPC officials when contacted about the reported snag refused to comment.
Uri-II is a run-of-the-river scheme on Jhelum. The project cost is Rs 575 crores and involved a 38m high concrete gravity dam with four bays of low level spillway, a head regulator with two bays each 12.5m wide on the left bank, one desilting basin 225m in length, a 4233m long headrace tunnel, a 78m deep surge shaft, an underground power station, a 3614m long tailrace tunnel and a diversion tunnel through the right abutment of the dam.
The 50m high concrete gravity dam across the river Jhelum will have a top width of 8 meters. The 60m overflow section which is made of four low level spillways with a 9m clear waterway will cater to design flood of 4850 m3/sec.
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