Minister for R&B Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari has asked the engineers of R&B and PMGSY departments to settle all pending land acquisition and compensation cases in Jammu division to ensure timely completion of various important road projects.‘’No road project should suffer because of delay in land acquisition and other clearances and asked the authorities to expedite the processes”, he said. The Minister was reviewing progress of the road and bridge projects, CRF and NABARD schemes approved for Jammu division at an officers meeting here today.Commissioner Secretary R&B, Chief Engineers of R&B and PMGSY Jammu besides Superintending Engineers of different circles and senior officers from Planning and Finance Departments were present in the meeting.
The meeting was told that Rs 1400 Cr have been approved for 547 schemes against which Rs.1071 Cr stands expended so far. Under CRF, 3 schemes have been approved during the previous financial year costing Rs. 507 Cr till March 2015, while work is apace on 39 schemes in the division.Regarding bridges, the meeting was informed that 125 bridges have been completed out of 282 approved at a cost of Rs. 440 Cr, while 4 bridges were reconstructed out of the 51 damaged ones in the division so far. Under State Plan Projectization, 1482 schemes at estimated cost of Rs.400 crore have also been approved, the meeting was told.Under PMGSY, 1139 Schemes have been completed out of 2038 Schemes at a cost of Rs 2977 cr, which has given connectivity to 1701 habitations in the division.
Underlining need for constructing durable roads, the Minister asked engineers to change the existing 20mm bituminous specification to 50mm and 75mm in future projects.The Minister exhorted upon the officers not to prepare DPRs of any project until asked by the Ministry or the concerned administrative Secretariat. He said this practice needs to be checked and asked Chief Engineer to ensure such things do not happen.The Minister directed for establishing a Hot-Mix Plant at Jammu, besides making existing Hot-Mix plant at Baramulla functional and asked MD JKPCC and CE Jammu to coordinate with each other for the purpose.