Road connectivity
Jammu and Kashmir is one such region which has been witnessing least development on infrastructure which includes increase in the road length. The region being a hily one and prone to snowfall and vagaries of weather has witnessed least investment on roads during the past several decades now.
The situation is as such that many areas in the remote belts have been inaccessible by roads which has not only hampered development of these regions but has caused immense hardships to the people living in these areas.
Though the people living in such zones have been demanding road connectivity to their habitations but so far the demands have not been met and those in power had decided to ignore these important pleas.
Now that the situation has seen some improvement after the announcement by the chief secretary during a review meeting the other day declaring that all villages in Jammu and Kashmir will be connected by roads in one year which has meant that the dream that the people longed to have fulfilled will become a reality.
The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta also directed the Public Works (R&B) Department to speed up execution of works under Capex, CSS and PMGSY to make road to every village in JK a reality.
The government is laying emphasis on enhancing connectivity in the border villages including for border guarding forces and directed that all the border posts in Jammu and Kashmir should be connected with the roads during the next year.
The gover5nment has as of now set a target of completing 1750 KM road length under PMGSY III and this target is to be achieved during the next year.
The Public Works department that has been tasked to complete the works has already incurred an expenditure of 95 % and 80 % against the releases made under Central Road Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) and PMGSY respectively meaning that the authorities are also putting in their bit to complete the pending projects and targets.
Development of road network has seen an upswing over the past two years as against the target of 8000 roads, 5629 roads have been black topped while 2011 roads have been metalled/shingled during the current fiscal year.
Out of 819 projects sanctioned under NABARD, while 131 works were completed during the last year, 31 projects have been completed till date during the current fiscal year.
Under PMGSY I& II against the target of 322 roads, 226 roads were completed as on march 2021 while 103 long span bridge projects were completed against the target of 241 such bridges.
These targets have been completed despite weather causing hindrance in the execution of works in some areas. Though some hiccups remain in place but the works department also needs to devise a mechanism where in technical vetting of the projects can be done in advance at the time of submission of projects to NABARD and administrative approval/technical sanction can follow later immediately after the projects are sanctioned.
This will ensure timely completion of projects and will end up bringing cheer for those people who have been deprived of road connectivity so far.
KV Network
