Baalu Reviews Central Road Sector Projects In J

New Delhi, Feb 7 (UNI) As part of the Prime Minister's Special Package for Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has reviewed the entire gamut of road sector projects, including the 20 related to the construction of National Highways, with state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T R Baalu reviewed the Central Sector road projects under implementation in the strategically important Himalayan state with Mr Azad at a high-level meeting held in Jammu last evening.

These included the 20 projects, which are being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at a total cost of Rs 7,000 crore during the next three years.

All these projects are under various phases of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). ''Six of these National Highways stretches are in an advanced stage of completion'', the meeting was informed.

Out of a total length of 1245 km of National Highways in Jammu and Kashmir, construction of 437 km has been entrusted to the NHAI and the remaining 808 km to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for their upgrading and improvement.

The NHAI officials, who attended the meeting, informed that two state of the art tunnels, having a length of of 8.5 and 9.2 km respectively, had been envisaged on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway by employing French know-how.

Besides, plans have also been approved for 12 short tunnels, 34 major bridges and 24 viaducts, which would not only permit all-weather road connectivity to the commuters but also reduce the traveling distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 60 km.

Mr Baalu reviewed the programme implementation of strengthening of seven road stretches in the state announced by the Prime Minister as ''J&K Special Package''.

The BRO Director General briefed Mr Azad and Mr Baalu on the pace of implementation of the special package, which includes the strengthening and widening of Domel-Katra road, (NH1C) and Batote-Kishtwar road (NH1B), construction of Mughal road to connect Shopian to Bafliaz, Srinagar-Uri Road(NH1A), Uri-LoC road, Khanabal-Pahalgam road, Narbal-Tangmarg road and Srinagar-Kargil-Leh road.

Mr Baalu instructed the BRO, the implementing agency for most of these road stretches, to expedite execution of the special package in a time-bound manner to ensure that the target date of completion of these stretches is achieved.

UNI