Complete road connectivity projects by Oct: Vohra tells PWD

Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra has directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to complete the road connectivity projects in the state by October this year.

Over 3,500 road connectivity projects at a cost of Rs 12,800 crore are currently at various stages of execution but Vohra has expressed displeasure over the slow pace of works on some of them, officials said.

Since the inception of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) scheme, 3,501 connectivity projects, including roads and bridges, have been taken up in J&K at a cumulative cost of Rs 12,800 crore, they said.

They said these works were started under the PMGSY Phase I-XII and involves construction or upgradation of around 20,000 kilometre road length connecting around 3,000 habitations.

"Out of these, 1,613 schemes have been completed till date at a cost of Rs 4,545 crore covering a road length of 9,000 km spanning over 2212 habitations," the officials said.

Vohra recently held a review meeting of these projects with top officials of the PWD and expressed serious concern over the fact that 2,400 kms of roads under Phase III-IX of the PMGSY costing Rs 1,500 crore are yet to be completed, they said.

The officials said the governor directed for expediting all pending projects and asked the PWD to make advance preparations so that J&K can secure maximum number of road projects under the PMGSY-II, scheduled to be launched by the Centre next year.

According to the officials, under Phase X-XII, the Centre has not provided funds for land acquisition, as was done for earlier phases.

The land acquisition for these projects, 8,000 km road length costing Rs 7,000 crore, is estimated to cost an additional Rs 1,700 crore.

The governor directed the PWD to complete 1,000 km roads of earlier phases by October 2018 so that the state government would thereafter request the Centre to provide funds for land acquisition, they added.