SRINAGAR: The average road macdamization in J&K has been increased to 20.6 km per day in last three years as compared to 6.54 km per day before 2019, which reflects the progressing development happening across Jammu and Kashmir.
According to official data, road length in J&K has increased to 41,141 kilometres and the percentage of blacktop roads has reached to 74 percent as compared to 66 percent in 2019.
Under Pothole free road programme, a target of 5900 kilometres was made for 2021-22 of which 4600 kilometres of road length has been made pothole-free till date.
Remarkably, Jammu and Kashmir has once again been ranked among top three performing States/UTs at national level for construction of road length per year under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
J&K Maintained its rank for the second consecutive year as the Public Works Department (R&B) constructed PMGSY road length of 3284 kms during the year 2021-22 and connected 114 habitations through road networks by executing 427 schemes in the year.
Under PMGSY, an average 9 kms of road length was constructed per day, which was slightly higher than the achievement for the year 2020-21 with an average of 8.67 kms per day and 119 habitations were connected under PMGSY with 3167 kms of road length constructed.
With the construction of tunnels and macadamization as well as expansion of Srinagar- Jammu national highway, the average layover for trucks on is now less than 12 hours which earlier was 24-72 hours. The travelling time for passengers on the national highway has been reduced to 5.50 hours from 7-12 hours prior to 2019.
Moreover, four National Highway projects are being completed during 2022. Execution of Delhi-Amritsar Katra Expressway is being taken up. Under Bharat Mala, 10 new road/tunnel projects were agreed upon by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. All habitations with over 1000 population (as per the 2011 census) have been provided road connectivity. The provision of road connectivity for the habitations with 500 population by 2022-23 is also being taken up.
Public Works Department of J&K has embarked on a mission to reach out to unconnected habitations with road connectivity, strengthen and expand the intra UT road network, especially in rural & remote areas.
Public Works (R&B) Department has achieved considerable targets and achievements under various schemes /programmes implemented for Construction, improvement/ upgradation of roads & bridges, for providing connectivity with special focus on rural areas viz. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), Bridge Programme, Central Road & Infrastructure fund (CRIF), NABARD, Road Sector, Cities & Towns (Macadamization), Languishing Projects, Pothole Free Road Programme, NHAI/NHIDCL/BRO, and other departmental works.
For the J&K administration, road connectivity is not only a key component of Rural Development by promoting access to economic and social services but generating increased agricultural incomes and productive employment opportunities is also part of their implementation strategy.
The other reforms in the direction of providing state of art connectivity to last mile villages in J&K includes implementation of J&K PWD Engineering Manual 2021, formulation of Road Maintenance Policy-2021, J&K Macadamization (execution and quality control) and DLP Enforcement Manual, SOP for regular departmental actions, introduction of online management monitoring accounting system, introduction of two-party quality control mechanism, introduction of Tameer Taraqqi and Hamari Sadak mobile Apps, etc.
The new online initiatives are also aimed at making the grievance management system more robust and responsive by covering important features like online registration of new grievances, tracking of grievances, online monitoring and real-time grievance report.