Minister for Roads & Buildings Abdul Majd Wani conducted3-day extensive tour of twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and took stock of pace of various on-going developmental projects being executed by JK PCC, PMGSY and R&B departments.During the tour, the Minister visited Muradpur, Rajouri, Mendhar, Poonch, Mandi, Surankot, Fatehpur Gurian, Darhal and Nowsheraand addressed largely attended public meetings. Heinspected several developmentalprojects and also inaugurated some vital links roads in the area.
During his address at different public meetings, the Minister highlighted the significance of road communication network in the rural areas, saying that better road connectivity is vital for all round development and ameliorating socio-economic profile of rural populace. Hetermed road communication a life line for the village population which provides easy accessibility to them with their counterparts living in other parts of the area. The Government has been giving focussed attention to strengthen this vital sector during its regime and a remarkable progress has been witnessed in developing the rural road infrastructure, he maintained.
Referring to disbursement of land compensation to the people whose land acquired for construction of roads under PMGSY, the Minister said the Union Government has released Rs, 710 crore for the purpose. He said that this will help speedy completion of all on-going roads in the area.He said directions have already been issued to the respective Deputy Commissioners for expediting the process of land compensation to the affected people. At Muradpur, Mr. Wani inaugurated double span motorable bridge constructed at a cost of Rs. 9.30 crore by JK PCC.At Mandi, the Minister maintained that necessary steps will be taken for undertaking repairs, renovation and upgradation of existing roads and new projects will be taken up for connecting uncovered habitationsunder PMGSY. He said, besides repair and renovation of Mandi- Budha Amar Nath Ji road, the work on Poonch- Mandi road would also be taken-up under Central Road Funding (CRF) for the convenience of the people. The work on Loran- Tangmarg road would also be started soon to provide alternate road connectivity to the people of the area with Kashmir pision for which the concerned have already been directed for preparing Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of the project, he maintained.
The Minister said that the work on 31 schemes involving Rs. 75 crore for connecting 29 habitations is in full swing. This envisages construction of 28 kilometers of road in Mandi Constituency.Responding to the demands of locals at Darhal, Mr. Wani said besides upgradation of Rajouri- Darhal road, some local links of the constituency would also be upgraded for the convenience of the people. He asked for starting work on Ujhan Bridge, besides preparing DPRs for construction of Darhal-Sakkar Marg road, Dak Bungalow building and foot bridges over Darhal Nallah to provide easy access to the people of both sides.The Minister said that out of 54 road projects, 52 have been completed by spending Rs. 251 crore under PMGSY. In addition, 15 schemes amounting to Rs. 40 crore for construction of 107 kilometers roads is going-on under NABARD in Darhal area. En-route, the Minister visited Ziyarat Sain Gangi Badshah Fatehpur Gurihan and took stock of construction work being carried out in and around the Ziaryat. He also paid obeisance at the shrine and prayed for peace and prosperity of the people of the State.Among others, Chief Engineer, R&B Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Chief Engineer, PMGSY, Mr. M M Gupta, officers of district administration, besides other senior engineers of R&B, PMGSY, JK PCC accompanied the Minister during the tour.