Trying to complete macadamisation before temperature dips further: Div Com Kashmir

Srinagar, Oct 27: Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri Friday said that the administration was trying to expedite and complete the macadamisation work on roads before the onset of winter months.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Bidhuri said that after the G20 summit, the administration expedited the work on macadamisation to ensure that the pace of the work did not slow down and was completed on time.

“You might have also observed that in our Shehr-e-Khaas, we have initiated substantial projects for the smart city development,” he said.

Bidhuri said that the internal roads of the city, typically, fall under the jurisdiction of the municipality, and they have already devised their work plan.

“Our goal is to complete this before the onset of winter so that we can avoid any complications. The temperature will drop significantly in a month, which may cause issues with macadamisation. Therefore, we are prioritisingmacadamisation of major roads and completing it on time,” he said.

However, the Divisional Commissioner acknowledged that there must be some pending projects within the smart city projects which would be addressed as well.

“There are some areas where work needs to be done, but we want to avoid inconvenience for the people everywhere. Hence, we are completing the work in phases to minimise inconvenience for the public,” he said.

Chief Engineer Roads and Building (R&B) Department, Kashmir, Rafiq Ahmad Rafiq told Greater Kashmir that they had completed the macadamisation of a major portion of the roads during the current season and are expecting to push for more owing to the sunny weather for a few more days.

“We have two to three types of macadamisation projects which include upgradation projects which stretch to two to three seasons and another annual programme namely city and towns in which we do resurfacing of roads,” he said.

Rafiq said that another programme was a pothole-free programme in which resurfacing of roads was done in all areas falling under their jurisdiction.

“In the annual programme we had some 800 to 900 km of roads which have been covered,” he said.

Rafiq said that under the three-year NABARD projects they had fixed a target of 3700 km of roads for macadamisation.

“Under this project, we covered 1500 km last year and around 650 km of these roads this year as well,” he said.

Rafiq said that under the annual programme of macadamisation, the department had set a target of 1693 km and had covered 1550 km which stands macadamised to date.

“We may push more as we have sunny days ahead and we may achieve the target,” he said.

About some left out roads in cities and towns, Rafiq said that some areas were left out as the macadamisation of these roads would be approved under NABARD or other projects that would be taken up in the coming time.