Advisors review Highway, Mughal Road condition
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 16: Advisors to Governor, K Vijay Kumar, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, K K Sharma and K Skandan today reviewed the status of works undertaken for maintenance of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway keeping in view the regular incidents of landslides resulting its blockage.
They discussed the action plan for maintenance and repairs of Mughal Road and creation of wayside amenities so as to make it an alternate road link between Kashmir and Jammu regions while the NHAI representatives announced that an expert team from New Delhi will visit Jammu-Srinagar Highway to study and minimize landslides.
An official handout said the Advisors discussed the directions already issued to the concerned departments/agencies for expediting the works related to maintenance and repair of National Highway especially covering of slopes at identified places so as to minimize the chances of landslides causing road blockage.
IG Traffic Alok Kumar informed the meeting about the plan which the Traffic Department has adopted to regulate the traffic on NH and Mughal Road these days and measures to be adopted for ensuring smooth movement of traffic on these important road links.
Representatives from NHAI briefed the meeting that the repair and maintenance works are underway and an Expert Committee from New Delhi will be visiting the State within few days to conduct visit to the National Highway to study its present condition. “It would later submit a report on how to minimize the incidents of landslides by covering the slopes,” they said.
The meeting further deliberated upon various important issues which needs immediate attention of concerned departments/agencies to resolve them in a time bound manner.
After thorough discussions and the inputs provided by the participants, few decisions were taken in the meeting to ensure movement of traffic on both the roads.
It was decided that the Traffic Police would give preference to the trucks carrying perishable items, livestock, food-grains and petroleum products, macadamization of the roads would be expedited and patch work to be completed in ten days, mobile network provider Jio will provide network connectivity on Mughal Road by installing towers at identified places, combined teams of Army, Police & SDRF will be placed at critical points, wayside amenities will be created on Mughal Road by Tourism department including temporary toilets, food points, vehicle repair points, overloading will not be allowed on both the roads, PHC will be established at Dubjan in Shopian, two ambulances will be provided for Mughal Road, advanced heavy duty snow cutter machines will be procured for clearance of snow on Mughal road and NHAI will effectively put in protection measures at sliding zones.
“All the concerned departments and agencies were directed to implement these decisions on ground and put in their coordinated efforts in making NH and Mughal Road traffic worthy for the maximum time”, the handout said.
Principal Secretary, Finance, Arun Kumar Mehta, Principal Secretary, Transport, Asgar Samoon, Commissioner Secretary, Forests, M K Dwivedi, PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh, Commissioner Secretary PWD Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Secretary Tourism, Secretary DMR&RR, Pandurang Kondbarao Pole, IGP Traffic Alok Kumar, Chief Engineer Mughal Road Project, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, other senior officers of concerned departments, representatives of NHAI, Army and Mobile Network Providers attended the meeting.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Khan, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Sanjeev Verma, Deputy Commissioners of Udhampur, Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch and Shopian also attended the meeting through video conferencing.
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