STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: As a major initiative in connectivity sector, the Public Works Department (PWD) would be macadamizing around 10,000 KM road length under PMGSY during the next financial year. This will be in addition to the upgradation of roads to be taken up under other schemes including CRF, NABARD, World Bank, ADB, state sector and district sector.
“J&K faces huge topographical and climatic challenges in constructing rural roads but the state government would macadamize longest road length ever under PMGSY next year,” Minister for Public Works Naeem Akhtar said during a conference of Ministers in-charge of States for PMGSY and Rural Development organized by Union Ministry of Rural Development in New Delhi earlier this week.
He said a target of macadamizing 1,800 KM road length under PMGSY would be achieved in J&K by this fiscal. “For pacing up execution of connectivity projects, the state government has fixed timelines for tendering, allotment of contracts and other codal formalities bracketing the whole process to 45 days,” the Minister said, adding that this has resulted in the tendering of more than 300 languishing projects, in spite of the seasonality challenges that the state is facing. He said the Geographical Information System (GIS) has also been tendered out and would be fixed by the end of March this year.
Batting for framing of national policy for the maintenance of PMGSY roads, the Minister said the government is taking over five-year-old PMGSY schemes under R&B (PWD) sector to maintain the rural roads. A national policy on this would ensure that the states don’t lose the huge assets that have been created over the years under PMGSY, he stressed.
The Minister also stressed the need to consider the impact of road construction on the ecology and conducting environmental impact studies in eco-sensitive states like J&K and Uttarakhand.
