Minister for Public Works, Naeem Akhtar, today convened a meeting at Pahalgam to review the performance of the R&B Department in the South Kashmir districts.

The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer R&B Sheikh Hamid, Chief Engineer PMGSY Malik Basharat, SEs of R&B in Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama & Shopian, Executive Engineers and AEEs of R&B and PMGSY of all the four districts of South Kashmir.

While reviewing the performance of different projects, the Minister exhorted upon the engineers to ensure the quality of work is not compromised with so that quality and enduring public infrastructure is developed.

The Chief Engineers of R&B and PMGSY gave a detailed briefing to the Minister about the status of different ongoing developmental works.

It was said that in Anantnag district, 90 kilometres of the 320 Kms of road length has been macadamised, so far, and work on rest of length is going on in full swing. In addition, under Central Road Fund 10 new works have been allotted besides the work on 4 projects already approved is also going on. The Chief Engineer R&B informed the Minister that upgradation work on Seer-Aishmuqam road has been tendered out and the execution work shall commence soon. Whereas under NABARD 93 works have been taken up out of which 28 have been completed.

The Minister was informed that In Kulgam district, against the target of 130 kms, as many as 24 kms of road length has been macadamised, so far. Besides, 3 new works under CRF have been approved and taken up for execution. Under NABARD, 18 works out of 46 approved works under have been completed and work on rest schemes is apace.

Similarly in Pulwama district, 94 kms out of 200 kms have been macadamised so far. Besides, the work on 3 CRF works is near completion and 4 new works have been tendered out. Under NABARD, 39 schemes have been completed while as the rest 39 schemes are under different phases of execution.

In Shopian, 27 kms out of 100 kms of targeted road length has been macadamised so far. Besides, the work on Shopian-Bijbehara road with a width of 48 feet shall start very soon as the work has been tendered out. Under NABARD schemes, double-laning work on Reshnagri Bridge at an approved cost of Rs 16 crore is going on and shall be completed during next year. In addition, work on other 6 bridges is also going on in full swing, the meeting was told.

It was given out that a total of 750 kms of road length under different schemes viz. State sector, district sector, PMGSY and NABARD have been targeted for macadamization this year in the four districts of South Kashmir.

During the meeting, the Minister was apprised about the progress of National Highway-444 for which the department has roped in a consultant. He was informed that Brazloo bridge construction has been approved by the Central Government, the work on which shall be completed after the finalisation of tendering process. Besides, the land acquisition process of the circular highway connecting Qazigund with Srinagar is also going on.

The Minister directed the engineers to strictly adhere to the technical specifications of the macadamization process. Besides, he directed for facilitating the contractors for filing and uploading of e-tenders at the divisional level.

He also called upon the engineers to have joint inspection of the new and to-be-upgraded roads alongwith concerned revenue officers so that land acquisition process can be smoothened to speed up the execution of the developmental works.

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