To review the progress on 4 laning of Srinagar-Jammu National Highway project, Srinagar/Jammu city ring road project, rail link project and various Border Roads Organization (BRO) projects, Chief Secretary, B R Sharma today chaired the 2nd meeting of the high level Project Monitoring Group (PMG) here.Chairman, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Raghav Chandra, Financial Commissioner, Planning Development & Monitoring Department, B B Vyas, Financial Commissioner, Revenue Department, Lokesh Dutt Jha, Commissioner Secretary’s of PDD, R&B, Forest and Revenue, Divisional Commissioner’s Jammu/Kashmir, concerned Deputy Commissioners and other senior officers were present in the meeting.The Chief Secretary reviewed the section wise progress on the Srinagar- Jammu National Highway. It was informed that the work on the 65Km Jammu- Udhampur section has been completed while as in the remaining five sections work is at different stages. Work on Srinagar- Qazigund section is likely to be completed by December-2016, Qazigund-Banihal section by June-2017, Banihal- Ramban by June- 2019 and Ramban-Nashri section by December 2018.Issues related to land acquisition and award, removal of structures, forest clearance, tree cutting and utility shifting in certain portions of the National Highway were discussed in the meeting with Chief Secretary issuing timelines to address these within the shortest time.
"Take immediate action to remove bottlenecks impeding the smooth construction/completion of the sections of the National Highway" Chief Secretary told concerned officers adding that further progress shall again be reviewed in the last week of November.Instructions were also given to expedite the land acquisition proceedings for construction of 4 lane ring road/by pass around Srinagar and Jammu cities. “Plan a calendar of activities for the ring road project and set clear timelines and accordingly move forward to accomplish the tasks within that period besides keep provision in the project for various types of civic amenities ” Chief Secretary instructed the Revenue and R&B authorities.The Chief Secretary also reviewed the status of the Udhampur-Srinagar rail link project and gave instructions to the concerned authorities to resolve immediately pending issues in Katra- Banihal section related to land acquisition, forest clearance, and construction of power transmission lines.Progress of various BRO road projects in Reasi, Rajouri, Samba and Poonch districts besides progress on the Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri and Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri road projects was also reviewed in the meeting.