JAMMU, FEBRUARY 12 – Minister for Works (R&B), Mr Naeem Akhtar today informed the House that construction of 27 Kms Udhampur-Ramnagar road has been taken for up-gradation at an estimated cost of Rs 37.47 crore.
Responding to a Calling Attention Notice by Ranbir Singh Pathania, the Minister said that the scope of the sub-project was to upgrade existing 3 mtrs wide carriage way to intermediate lane specification. He said contractor could complete only the road work while construction of 102 mtrs span bridge over River Tawi was left incomplete as the ADB Lone-1 (2151-IND) was financially closed.
He said the road was handed over to R&B Department on June 2015 due to the non-performance of the contractor, the sub-project was terminated on December 2015 and the balance work of bridge over River Tawi was handed over R&B Department in January 2016 for its completion.
The Minister further said that the improvement and up-gradation of the road was done within available ROW of the road as per stipulation of Contract Agreement and that the work has been executed by J&K ERA under the Supervision of Design and Supervision Consultants M/S Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt Ltd as per ADB guidelines and MORT&H specifications certified by the Consultants.
The House was informed that the road is currently black topped with damaged surface in stretches. The Minister said a road stretch in Kms 12th RD 0-400 falling in Mohra Kogha is a slide prone area having steep back uphill slopes with an average height of about 75 Mtrs with disintegrated and fractured and over hanging rocks which often cause land slide during rainy season thus risking the lives of the people.
He said in order to avoid any eventuality, a detailed project report for the instant road is under formulation at a cost of Rs.4.77 crore to envisages road safety measures as a permanent solution by way of benching of back hill slopes and providing necessary protection wall as per site requirement.
He said the riding surface of the road is also being rectified by way of laying of premix carpet in the bad stretches in a phased manner and that 5.50 Kms road length has been macadamized during the current fiscal in damaged stretches under City and Town Programme.(KNO)