Work on roads, highways reviewed
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 14: Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh RK Mathur today called on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of Road Traffic and Highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi and discussed with them the development works in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Mathur and Gadkari reviewed progress of various projects involving construction of road/tunnel/bridges across the Union Territory of Ladakh during the meeting.
They also had a discussion on possible new projects including funicular and tunnels.
Mathur apprised Nitin Gadkari of the initiatives taken in terms of incorporating hydrogen and e-vehicles in the UT as part of the carbon-neutral vision.
Work on a number of projects including roads and highways besides Zojila tunnel is going on or is at the stage of launch in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
“All such works came up for a review during the meeting,” the officials said.
Meanwhile, Mathur’s meeting with Rajnath Singh comes at a time when Indian and Chinese armies completed disengagement from Patrolling Point 15 in Gogra-Hotsprings area in Eastern Ladakh.
Mathur is reported to have briefed Rajnath Singh about works in defence sector in Eastern Ladakh.
The meeting lasted about half an hour.
Though the armies of India and China disengaged from Patrolling Point 15, there has been no progress yet on resolving the standoff in Demchok and Depsang regions.
The Indian and Chinese armies on September 8 announced that they have kicked off the disengagement process from the PP-15, in a significant forward movement in the stalled process to pull-out troops from the remaining friction points in the region.
The disengagement in the Gogra-Hotsprings area is an outcome of the 16th round of high-level military talks in July, the two armies said while announcing the beginning of the process on September 8.
Initially, around 30 soldiers from each side were locked in a face-off in PP-15 but the number of troops kept changing depending on the overall situation in the region.
India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquility along the LAC were key for the overall development of the bilateral ties.