Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh today directed the officers to speed up the pace of developmental works being undertaken by different departments and agencies so that people get benefited by it besides getting the requisite facilities.The Deputy Chief Minister was speaking at a function organised by J&K ERA for handing over three mega drainage projects constructed by them to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. These projects which have been funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and would cater to the 55 kms of storm water drainage and an amount of Rs. 160 crore has been utilized for the purpose.The Deputy Chief Minister said that it has been the endeavour of the government to ensure that the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar are developed on modern basis so that these come up as model cities of the country. He said several developmental programmes have also been undertaken and clear instructions have been passed to the executing agencies and officers to ensure their time bound completion.
The mega drainage projects are Rawalpora-Tengpora drainage scheme, Bemina-Fruit Mandi drainage scheme and Pohru-Chanapora drainage scheme and the total network created will have the optimum capacity to pump out 85 MGD (4 crore ltrs per day) and thus prevent submergence of major part of the city.It is pertinent to mention that in order to pump out the water collected through these drains, four pumping stations have been constructed which contain nine non clog submersible pumps, nine dry weather pumps, seven storm water pumps and diesel gensets.Chief Executive Officer, ERA, Mr. Vinod Sharma, Commissioner SMC, Showkat Ahmad Zargar and other senior officers of the agency and Municipal Corporation were present on the occasion.