SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday said that seven tunnels will come up in the next two years in Jammu and Kashmir which will make connectivity faster and easier across the region.
Talking to reporters at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar, Sinha said that tendering and other documentation for the tunnel projects has begun, one of which is the 14.15-km Zojila tunnel for which construction work has started today (Thursday). The Zojila tunnel is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 7,000 crore.
“The work on Zojila tunnel has started today. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has virtually inaugurated the project. The tunnel will be constructed with an amount of Rs 7,000 crore,” Sinha said.
“Good governance will be ensured in all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir without any discrimination. My mission is to ensure comprehensive development in the UT,” he added.
Sinha also said that 500 tractors will be provided to farmers on subsidised rates as part of his administration’s developmental programme.
Regarding his Back-to Village programme, where officers on the spot remove bottlenecks for various developmental programmes, Sinha said that five lakh people participated at 285 locations in the BV-3 programmes. A sports kit has been given to every panchayat and dustbins have been provided to them, too, he said.
He informed that 4.25 lakh domicile certificates have been distributed among people during the programme.
The LG Sinha said that after Back to Villages, the government will start now “My town, My pride movement”.
According to him, steps are being taken for quick, hassle-free government services, in a way that will remove all the agents responsible for corruption. Among the steps are online permissions, clearance of contractor bills and on-time payments, he said.
He also said that a 200-bed Ganderbal hospital, 500-bed paediatric hospital in Bemina, and much-delayed works since many years will start again to be set open for the public at the earliest.
He also said that another 3000-MW hydro power will be added in the next four years, which will be achieved at a faster rate than in the past forty years. He said Jammu and Kashmir has been able to generate only 3000 MW in the past forty years.
Some hydro power projects were started by the Omar Abdullah government and were to be completed in 2016. None of them has been completed since then.

Reader correspondent