Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 7: Minister for PWD (R&B), Floriculture, Gardens and Parks, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today visited Pantha Chowk to review the progress of work on removal of bottlenecks and road widening in the area. He said the road widening would be completed in this vital area within two months as most of the chronic bottlenecks have been already removed.
The Minister said work is being expedited on upgradation of Srinagar-Jammu Highway and the ambitious project is likely to be commissioned by next year. He said given the sluggish performance of the project contractors, the Government has changed RAMKY with Project Management Unit to ensure speedy completion of the project and provide assured all-weather connectivity to Kashmir.
The Minister said that the Government of India has also approved two Ring Road projects for the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu at a total project cost of Rs 3500 crore. He said the accomplishment of these ambitious projects would go a long way towards decongestion of traffic movement in these cities.
Seeking cooperation of the people for removal of structures to facilitate road widening in the area for smooth traffic movement, the Minister asked the property holders to remove the structures which come under road widening plan as soon as possible. He said if there are any genuine issues involved in the acquisition process with the property owners same would be resolved by the revenue and R&B authorities at the earliest. He said a committee has already been constituted under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Srinagar for the rehabilitation of the affected property owners.
The Minister said that streamlining of traffic movement at the two crucial entry points to the Srinagar city – Pantha Chowk and Shalteng – has remained a major challenge for the administration.
Earlier, the Minister took extensive tour of various areas of Srinagar city including Bye Pass, Qamarwari, Parimpora, Jawahar Nagar etc. to take stock of the illegal post flood construction of commercial buildings which is Rampant in almost in all flood affected areas of the city. He urged the authorities to take immediate action against the culprits. He said that Government has not imposed any restriction on construction of flood affected residential houses.
A number of delegations interacted with the Minister at Pantha Chowk area and put forth their demands. The Minister assured them that their genuine demands would be redressed on priority.
Follow our WhatsApp channel