Doda, November 24: Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari today laid foundation of 25 NH Projects worth Rs 11721 crores at Doda today. These projects are being executed by NHIDCL, NHAI and BRO which will increase the total length of NH by 257 km, an official press release said.
The Lieutenant Governor of J&K, Manoj Sinha, MoS in PMO and the Members of Parliament for Kathua-Udhampur and MP from Jammu-Poonch were present at the occasion.
Nitin Gadkari while addressing the gathering said that J&K has a huge tourism potential which will be connected through numerous projects in the upcoming days for boosting employment and economic development of the UT. He said the central government has framed a separate road map for the development of this UT and to accelerate the developmental scenario number of bridges, roads, tunnels are being constructed on war footing basis at the estimated cost of thousands of crores, besides assured that the investment will be tripled in upcoming years upto 2 lakh Crore especially for J&K.
While talking about the futuristic projects the Union Minister said that the DPR for various roads and tunnels are at DPR stage and shall be completed in the upcoming days which will be a big push to the developmental scenario of the UT. Gadkari acceded to local demand raised to connect the Hambal, Kalhota, Marmat with the new alternate highway.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor also secured inclusion of 06 more road projects for Jammu and 01 project for Kashmir division under National Highways and Bharatmala category. The inclusion of 06 Road projects in the Jammu division will give a massive push to the economic growth and industrial development, besides tapping the tourism potential in the region.
These newly included road projects are: Kathua-Basholi-Bani-Bhaderwah-Doda (170 KM); Doda-Bhaderwah-Chamba (Himachal) Road (132 KM); Dayalachak-Challan-Billawar-Mahanpur-Basohli Road(118 KM); Tawi Bridge-Jammu Airport-Miran Sahib-R.S.Pura Suchetgarh (Old Jammu-Sialkot Road) (29 KM); Surankote-Bafliaz-Shopian-Srinagar (Mughal Road) (145 KM); Atholi(Kishtwar)-Machail-Zanskar Road (Kargil); Narabal-Tangmarg-Gulmarg-Baramulla (70 KM).
LG Manoj Sinha in his address said that after abrogation of Article 370 the execution of new roads, tunnels and other basic infrastructure has gained huge push to ensure the overall development of the UT of J&K under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister. While counting the numerous projects under execution in J&K being implemented by the various executing agencies the LG said that these projects are important from not only tourism point of view but also for the economic growth and industrial development point of the area.
The LG said that the progress of construction of new roads have been doubled across in recent years in J&K and apart from the construction of buildings, roads and tunnels, the UT Administration in coordination with Union Government has also kick-started other projects in the UT which includes plantation of High Density plants in Jammu province.
He further said that all projects are being executed on a fast-track basis and will be completed in a time bound manner. He further said that the budgetary allocation has been doubled for the district which has now reached beyond 700 crores.
