Srinagar: In order to decongest traffic in J&K and provide alternate way for commuters, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday gave nod to the construction of Srinagar and Jammu Ring roads.
Approving the prestigious and most required duo projects involving an expenditure of abut Rs. 3000 crores at a meeting of high level officers of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Jammu and Kashmir State R&B Department here, the Chief Minister directed the NHAI executing agency for the projects to formulate the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and put up the proposals to the R&B Department for finalization.
The proposed Ring Road project for Srinagar will start at Galander and meet the National at Narbal Junction in its Phase-I. The road will be 4-lane with 6-lane future projection. Under the Phase-II of the project, a two-way road will start at Narbal and meet the National Highway in Ganderbal.
The project is likely to cost Rs. 1195 crores in Phase-I and Rs. 448 crores in the Phase-II. The road length in the Phase-I will be 34.72 kilometers and in the Phase-II, 27.2 kilometers. There will be a Toll Plaza at Narbal Junction. In the proposed 4-lane road project from Galander to Narbal there will be 155 culverts, two road-over bridges, two flyovers, five major junctions, 17 minor junctions and one Toll Plaza. The two-lane road from Narbal to Ganderbal will have 135 culverts, 5 major junctions and 9 minor junctions.
The Chief Minister said that the projects should keep room for widening from 4-lanes to 6-lanes and from 2-lanes to 4-lanes to cater to futuristic needs.
The Jammu 4-lane Ring Road involving an expenditure of Rs. 1355 crores will have with one Toll Plaza in each of the homogenous sections. It will start near Vijaypur (Raipur) and meet the National Highway at Akhnoor where from it will go up to Nagrota Bye-Pass. The road project will be about 60 kilometers in length. It will have 4 major bridges in Package-I and 4 similar bridges in package-II while the number of minor bridges in Package-I will be 5 and 4 in Package-II. The number of culverts in Package-I will be 215 and in Package-II 102. There will be two flyovers in each package while as two overhead bridges will be constructed in the Package-II.
Under the Package-I the road length from Raipur to Akhnoor will be 43 kilometers and in Package-II it will be 16.9 kilometers.
The Chief Minister said that creation of better communication facility in the cities, towns and rural areas has been focused in the development policy by his government and all avenues are being explored to upgrade road communication facilities for better traffic management and commuting facilities to the people besides generating economic activities.
Omar Abdullah said that up to the mark ring roads for the duo cities of Srinagar and Jammu are need of the hour and to cater to the futuristic requirements of the two capitals growing on faster pace.
The Project Director NHAI in a PowerPoint presentation explained the salient features of the proposed road projects and highlighted the main features of the projects.
Zahid Maqbool is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar.
