Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 15: While the State Government would get financial assistance of Rs 873 crores under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) during this year, the new Government has sent a proposal of 487 new road projects worth Rs 3600 crores under 10th phase of the PMGSY Scheme to the Centre.
Highly placed sources in the R&B Department told the Excelsior that immediately after taking over the charge, new Minister for R&B (Works) and Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Rehman Veeri took the review of the current status of PMGSY road projects in the State. The new road projects worth over Rs 3600 crores put on hold by the Union Ministry of Rural Development (GoI) were re-submitted to the MoRD hardly two days back. These all 487 new road projects for J&K will be covered under 10th Phase of the PMGSY Scheme.
Sources further said that though new road projects were already identified for the 10th Phase but due to some technical reasons and also non-submission of Audited Balance Sheet for the previous financial year, the Government of India had put the new projects on hold. Even the physical performance of PMGSY road projects in J&K also remained poor during last year and for this National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA) had indicted the State Government.
A communiqué from the Union Ministry of Rural Development (Rural Connectivity Division-GoI), has indicated that J&K State has been allocated a total Rs 873 crores for the year 2016-17 under Phase 10 of the PMGSY scheme. Out of the total amount, Rs 87 crores would be the State share while the share of MoRD will be worth Rs 786 crores. The neighbouring State of Punjab has been allocated Rs 135 crore and Himachal Pradesh Rs 180 crores for this financial year. Bihar has remained at the top for PMGSY funding this year with Rs 5000 crores, followed by Madhya Pradesh Rs 2833 crores, Odisha Rs 2750 crores and West Bengal Rs 2260 crores.
Compared to the Northern States of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Haryana; the Jammu and Kashmir State has remained low in physical achievements of annual targets in PMGSY road projects. Sources disclosed that compared to the highest 45 % PMGSY roads in J&K, 9% roads are under PMGSY in Punjab, 33 % in Himachal, 23 % in Uttarakhand and 14 % in Haryana. But J&K is the lowest among all the Northern States in the PMGSY performance, in terms of average length of construction in kms per day.
It is surprising that Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have secured 100 % physical achievement, Punjab 98 % while J&K just 51 % during last financial year.
The NRRDA has also directed J&K to update all data in Online Management Monitoring System (OMMAS), relating to habitations, DRRP, Core network, year-wise sanctioned proposals, R&D, Maintenance, R&P module by the end of this year. From this month (April 2016) onwards, no physical and financial reports will be accepted from J&K and only OMMAS generated reports will be considered. The agency also pulled up J&K for being at the top with 361 incomplete/ abandoned roads sanctioned prior to 2010-11 as projected in the documents submitted recently.
Chief Engineer PMGSY Jammu, Hamid Sheikh when contacted said that delay in the completion of many PMGSY roads in State has been caused mainly due to land disputes, pending forest clearances and abandoning of road projects by contractors. He said that after cutting work, many contractors abandoned works and dispute in payments were also some of the reasons. In many cases, alignments of the roads had to be changed.
In response to another question, the Chief Engineer said that for the 10th Phase of the PMGSY, J&K will get Rs 3600 crore while for 8th-9th Phase, State had received Rs 1700 crores. Last year, the State received Rs 542 crores while Rs 54 crores was the State share. He further disclosed that in Jammu province total 1033 road and bridges projects worth Rs 3200 crores were taken up since 2001 and Rs 1800 crores were released for the same. Out of the total 6400 kms road length, nearly 2800 kms length was completed and 530 projects cleared so far.
The work is going on in respect of 270 road projects while 218 road projects are facing problems like litigations, forest clearance, land disputes and disputes with contractors. There are nearly 170 road projects for which no contractor is coming forward for black topping. Re-tenders were also invited. The areas are very remote and mountainous and the contractors are demanding higher rates for them. The matter has been taken up with the new Minister and it is likely to be solved shortly.
In the whole State, total 2067 projects have been taken in hand and physical performance in Jammu division has remained around 50 % while in Kashmir it was higher. He said that for the current financial year the new minister has fixed the target around 75-80 % physical performance of the PMGSY roads in the State. He said out of the total 10,000 km PMGSY roads in J&K, 6000 kms have been completed including fair weather roads. The State has spent over Rs 3500 crore on PMGSY road projects up to 9th Phase so far, he added.
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