The State Government today decided to outsource the dredging of River Jhelum and its tributaries including flood channels to expedite the work in view of the looming flood threat in Kashmir.This decision was taken at a high-level meeting convened here today under the chairmanship of Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Choudhary Sukhnandan Kumar to review the progress of dredging in the wake of the devastating floods of September 2014. Minister for PWD (R&B), Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr B B Vyas were also present on the occasion.The Minister expressed concern over the tardy pace of dredging and asked the Chief Engineer Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Mr Javed Jaffer to workout modalities for outsourcing the work so that hi-tech machines are deployed for de-silting of River Jhelum and Flood Spill Channels. He directed the Chief Engineer to issue a short-term tender notice for this purpose so that dredging is started on full scale at the earliest. He said till the Department works-out outsourcing modalities, it would continue with the work to clear as much area as possible. The Chief Engineer informed the meeting that 38 machines are presently deployed on various segments of River Jhelum for dredging, deepening, widening and strengthening of embankments of the river from Khannabal in Anantnag to Khadinyar in Baramulla.Commissioner Secretary PHE, I&FC Parvez Ahmad Malik and other senior officers of the Department were present.