NEW DELHI, Mar 22: The Banihal-Qazigund section of the railways on the Jammu and Kashmir national highway will be commissioned within the next two months, taking forward the rail link between Kashmir valley and Jammu region.
This was decided at a meting at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here, a spokesman for the Office said today.
The meeting was held to review the progress of various infrastructure projects covered under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan for Jammu and Kashmir and certain announcements made by him for the state.
It was chaired by Pulok Chatterjee, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, and attended by the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir and secretaries of various ministries of the Central Government.
The meeting also held a detailed discussion on the progress of various projects covering the railways, power, civil aviation, food processing, tourism and textiles sectors with a view to accelerating the pace of implementation of identified projects and fixing timelines for their completion.
“The Banihal-Qazigund section of the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail line is to be commissioned in April-May, 2013,” the spokesman said.
The Jammu-Udhampur section (from Jammu) and Baramulla-Srinagar section (from Kashmir) of the state railway line are aleady operational.
However, the intervening portion from Qazigund (Kashmir) and Udhampur (Jammu) on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was still not completed because of the very difficult mountainous terrain, he added.
The meeting also decided that power transmission and distribution network strengthening works in Jammu and Kashmir region was to be completed by March, 2014.
The Chutak hydro-epectric project (HEP) will be fully commissioned by October while the Nimoo-Bazgo HEP will be completed by December.
Central Government secretaries had been asked to monitor the projects, the spokesman said and added that the PMO would convene meetings to ensure that the timelines were met. (UNI)
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