Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 21: The Union Ministry for Road and Surface Transport today held high level review of bad condition of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, which has been leading to its frequent closure and massive jams at various places causing enormous inconvenience to the commuters. The Ministry directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and executing agencies to expedite work to meet deadlines and ensure proper maintenance.
Vijay Chibber, Secretary, Ministry for Road and Surface Transport, Government of India, took the review of National Highway in New Delhi following reports that work on Banihal-Qazigund and Qazigund-Srinagar sections of the Highway was already running behind schedule by one year and could get further delayed if certain issues like land acquisition etc were not addressed well in time.
Top brass of NHAI, dealing with the 4-laning of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway project, senior officers of Jammu and Kashmir Government and representatives of executing agencies among others attended the meeting.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Union Ministry voiced concern over delay in meeting deadlines of two vital sections of the project including Banihal-Qazigund and Qazigund-Srinagar and directed the NHAI and executing agencies to expedite the work to ensure that there was no further delay. Both stretches are running late by at least one year due to several bottlenecks, one of which pertained to land acquisition.
Sources said the State Government officials briefed the Union Ministry officials that both Revenue and Works Ministers had held high level review meetings recently to work out the issues of land acquisition and hopefully they will be addressed very soon. The State Government had also constituted a high powered committee to expedite the issues of land acquisition on the National Highway.
Sources said the Union Ministry has divided the National Highway into six stretched including Jammu-Udhampur, Udhampur-Chenani, Chenani Tunnel-Nashri, Ramban-Banihal, Banihal-Qazigund and Qazigund-Srinagar with a view to expedite work to ensure early completion of the Highway. However, the meeting observed that work on some stretches was yet to be allotted.
Calling for further expediting the work and assuring full cooperation from their side, the Union Ministry officials pointed out that distance of 300 kilometers long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway will be reduced by 60 kilometers after completion of all six stretches of the National Highway. The reduced distance will cut the travel time to just five hours.
Presently, if the National Highway is normal, the journey takes anytime between eight to 10 hours. However, due to frequent road blockades between Ramban and Banihal and other places including Khairi near Udhampur, the people were trapped frequently in the jams and even had to spend nights on the roads to reach their destinations.
The State Government officials wanted the Union Ministry to stress on the maintenance agencies to keep the highway through during the rains as it remained closed sometime for hours and on other occasions for days together causing enormous inconvenience to the commuters.
“The Union Ministry directed the NHAI and other agencies to ensure that the National Highway was not jammed frequently and take measures to repair trouble prone areas to keep the highway going even during the rains,” sources said, adding the agencies assured the Union Ministry for Road and Surface Transport that they would do their best to keep the highway working.
The State Government officials also called upon the Union Ministry to help in making Mughal road as an all weather road with the construction of tunnel and maintain Batote-Kishtwar-Sinthan Highway so that these alternate road links can be used by the commuters if Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed.
“The Union Ministry has agreed to maintenance of the Kishtwar highway while it will convey its decision on Mughal Road shortly,” sources said.
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