Union MoS and Lok Sabha MP from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh today launched around Rs.100 crore worth of road projects at Ghordi in Chenani Assembly segment and Basantgarh in Ramnagar Assembly segment of district Udhampur.
Out of this, an amount of around Rs. 92 crore is to be spent on widening from single lane to double lane and upgradation of crucial road from Ghordi to Udhampur and the first phase of work from KM-13 to KM-26 amounting to Rs. 40 crore began today. The importance of this much-awaited road project is that, this is believed to be an extremely accident-prone stretch and several casualties have taken place in road accidents in the past.
The other road project launched today was that of PMGSY road from Basantgarh to Kanned, which had been sanctioned much earlier but got delayed due to certain reasons. Since the helicopter could not land in Basantgarh today, the foundation stone plate for this project was also unveiled from Ghordi while MLA Ramnagar R.S.Pathania addressed the gathering at Basantgarh and Dr Jitendra Singh addressed them through mobile phone.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that a number of such projects had been initiated in the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency which had been pending for several decades. The question, he said, is why these initiatives were not undertaken earlier even though for the last 50 years, there have been influential Ministers and MPs representing this constituency.
Dr Jitendra Singh, however, appealed to the State Administration to avoid delays in execution of these projects. The Ghordi road upgradation started today, for example, he said, had been approved nearly two years ago, but the tender and allotment of work took place only last month. Similarly, he said, for river Devika cleaning project, Rs.170.50 crore was allocated in February 2017, but it took almost one year to prepare the DPR. The first-of-its-kind Bio-tech park at Kathua had also got delayed because of the avoidable Forest clearance issues, he added.
