Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Choudhary today convened a meeting of Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Departments to review the progress of various projects in these sectors.The Minister was informed that the PHE department has formulated a vision document for to meet potable water demand of Greater Jammu City covering an area of 287 Square Kms, which includes Municipal area of 112 Sq Kms and adjacent semi-urban area of 175 Sq Kms. He was informed that there are presently 818 water supply schemes under NRDWP which cover the population of Jammu division. There are also 27 water testing laboratories functional in Jammu province.The meeting was further informed that there are 36 small and medium towns in Jammu province, out of which 6 towns were taken up under UIDSSMT, 2 towns under STF and 24 towns under LIC Loan Assistance for augmentation of potable water.
Further Rajouri town is also being proposed under LIC loan Assistance during the current financial year. It was further informed that during the current financial year the PHE department Jammu has prepared Annual Action Plan of Rs 237.71 crore (central share). In addition 42 water supply schemes are ongoing under district sector with NABARD loan assistance with an estimated cost of Rs 68.47 crore.Mr. Sham Choudhary instructed the officers to speed up the pace of work on all ongoing projects and complete it within a shortest possible time. He also instructed to regularize all drinking water supply connections and to repair all defunct tube wells in Jammu province.Among others, Chief Engineer, I&FC, PHE, Mr. Rajeev Gandotra, Chief Engineer, RTIC, Mr. H C Jerath and all concerned SEs and Exens were attended the meeting.