The World Bank Mission headed by Saurabh Dani Wednesday met the Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khandey and briefed him about the implementation of the Disaster Response and Resilience Project approved by the World Bank Board for J&K.“We are in the implementation phase now and it is expected that by March-2016 we are ready for mobilization of the works”, Dani said adding that lot of work needs to be done in terms of prioritizing and designing of the works, bidding process and clearances for which timelines have to be fixed in consultation with the line departments to take the recovery project forward.
He said as part of the project we are also looking at preventing the same kind of infrastructural damage in future adding that since the State falls in seismic zone 5, structural stability would also be given thrust in the reconstruction process.
Dani said that as part of the project we will also fully support the endeavor of the State Government to have a fully operational SDMA in place that is dedicated to Disaster Management throughout the year.“A 3-tier structure has been framed comprising a Steering Committee headed by Chief Secretary for overall monitoring of the recovery project, a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) for monitoring and managing and Project Implementation Units (PIUs) in the departments which will carry out the works on the ground”, Commissioner Secretary, Relief & Rehabilitation and CEO, PMU of the World Bank Project”, Dheeraj Gupta said in the meeting.The Chief Secretary asked for close coordination between the line departments and the World Bank Mission on J&K.The World Bank team shall be visiting the State again in September to take the Action Plan forward.
The meeting was also attended by Financial Commissioner I&C, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Commissioner Secretary, H&UD, Bipul Pathak, Commissioner Secretary Finance, N K Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary R&B, Rohit Kansal, Commissioner Secretary, TE and YSS, Hirdesh Kumar, Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education, Ms. Sarita Chauhan and other officers.