Minister for Public Works Naeem Akhtar today said the government is working on various fronts to decongest the twin capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu and the matter for funding the projects in these cities has been taken up with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the basic theme of decongestion of urban areas.Replying to a joint question by legislators Vibod Gupta and Yashpal Sharma on the issue, the Minister informed the House that the government would prepare a consolidated proposal for these projects including the rehabilitation plan. He said the widening of Jammu-Akhnoor road would also assist in decongesting the traffic in Jammu city.The Minister informed that the contract for preparation of DPR for four-laning of Highway from Jammu to Poonch has been awarded to M/S Highway Engineering Consultant, Bhopal at a cost of Rs 441.93 lakh. He said the DPR would be finalized by July, 2018 while as the process of land acquisition and forest clearance would be initiated after finalization of alignment and DPR of the project.
The Minister informed that double-laning work of road from Rajouri to Siot via Kalakote has been completed between 106 km to 121.365 km (Rajouri) while as the work from 80 km (Kalakote) to 106 km is going on and the project would be completed by 2019. Regarding double-laning of road from Rajouri Kandi to Budhal, the Minister said the cutting work and surfacing work of road is in progress and would be completed by 2019.He further said the DPR for construction of Rajouri-Thanamandi-Surankote road is under process and would be completed by August this year.Legislators Surinder Kumar Choudhary and Vikram Randhawa raised supplementary questions related to the main question.