JAMMU: Principal Secretary, I&FC Department, Ashok Kumar Parmar today held a meeting to review the flood management works of the Jhelum and Tawi rivers here being taken under Prime Minister’s Development Plan (PMDP).
The meeting was attended by Secretary Technical (PWD), Joint Director (E&S), Jal Shakti and SE Hydraulic Circle Srinagar.
The Principal Secretary enquired from the officers about various components of this vital project. He took cognizance of the pending works and the reasons thereof. He maintained that all the works are of essential nature and should be taken in hand for early completion.
Parmar instructed the officers to reconstitute the committee and include a member from Central Water Commission in the High Level Committee. He impressed upon them to implement all the conditions put forth by Administrative Council. He urged them toask the concerned quarters to implement the relevant requirements as per the AC decisions.
He urged them to accelerate the process by its regular follow-up. He enjoined upon them to take opinion from the finance department regarding the pending technical sanction of few works already done in the Hokersar wetland. He asked them to stick to the guidelines and explore all options under it including post facto technical sanction of the project. The officers were further asked to take up the funding issue with central government again.
The meeting was informed that the comprehensive plan for flood management works were broken into 2 phases. It was also given out that the phase-I of the plan has already been completed at an estimated cost of Rs 399 crores and phase-II of the plan is under process of implementation.
The meeting was also apprised that part-A of the comprehensive plan consists of works to the tune of Rs1623.43 crore and under part-B works to the tune of about Rs 3630 crore are under implementation. It was given out that the financial concurrence from the department has also been secured for part-A of the second phase and is about to be tendered out after completing codal formalities.
It was further apprised that after culmination of the whole plan the threat of flood in J&K would abate to a larger extent.

KR Desk