Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 4: Chief Secretary, B B Vyas today chaired the 3rd Project Monitoring Group (PMG) meeting to review the progress achieved in major infrastructural projects in sectors including National Highway, Railways and Power.
Joint Secretary (PMG), PMO, Shubha Kumar and her team of officers participated in the meeting via video conferencing. Commissioner/Secretary, PW(R&B), Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Commissioner/ Secretary, Revenue, representatives of NHAI, Railways, PGCIL and other senior officers were also present.
The PMG was set up in 2013 under Cabinet Secretariat, as an institutional mechanism for resolving issues and fast tracking the completion and commissioning of projects of national importance. Each project is assigned a unique ID and the hurdles a project faces are flagged for early and effective resolution. The PMG is now functioning under Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), since 2015.
The major projects reviewed in the meeting included the Jammu-Udhampur, Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link, Jammu-Udhampur-Banihal-Srinagar National Highway, Northern Region System Strengthening Scheme (Power), 1000 MW PakalDul HEP and Transmission System associated with the 330 MW Kishanganga HEP.
Chief Secretary apprised Joint Secretary (PMG), PMO about the latest status of these projects and efforts made by the State Government in removing the bottlenecks to ensure accomplishment of the targets as per the set timelines.
For early resolution of the pending issues especially in the power sector projects, Chief Secretary asked both the Divisional Commissionrs to hold review meetings with the concerned DCs and fix weekly targets particularly those related to land acquisition, handing over possession of land to the executing agency and implementation of the approved R&R Plan.
Chief Secretary asked the Planning Department to update the latest progress in regard to PMG projects on the e-samikhsha portal.