R&B deptt carries restoration work on war-footing to ensure road connectivity

Restored 2666 of 2708 damaged roads in Jammu

PS BALI

Jammu, October 13

To revive motor-able communication, Roads and Building (R&B) department, equipped with an over 375 excavators and JCBs, have temporarily restored 2666 road links out of damaged 2708 roads, with a total stretch of 2692 kilometers in the ten districts of the Jammu province, while the work on the rest of roads is under progress.

Officials of the roads and buildings department, while talking to the Greater Kashmir, said that the recent floods affected 2708 roads, 54 approach roads to the major bridges and 177 approach roads to the foot bridges in 10 districts of the Jammu.

“The engineers of the R&B department have temporarily restored road network of 2666 roads, besides 34 approach roads to the major bridges and 28 to the foot bridges have also been restored to ensure movement,” said official, wishing not to be named.

Keeping in view the communication problem of the people, R&B have temporarily provided motor-able path in most of the areas, especially in the hilly terrain of Poonch, where as many as 28 bridges, including one major bridge were damaged at various locations, hitting vehicular traffic and pedestrian movement.

Officials, while giving detail, said that the roads, bridges and approaches to the bridges are restored on a temporarily basis, whereas tendering process for the permanent reconstruction of these roads is under progress.

While talking to Chief Engineer, R&B Jammu, Abdul Hamid, said that they have pressed all necessary machinery for the restoration of the road connectivity in the region and have succeeded in temporarily restoring road connectivity. But due to the extensive damage to the infrastructure at many places, especially of approach roads, temporary restoration won’t work.

“We have temporarily restored the damaged roads for the movement, but still at many places roads and foot bridges are washed away, which need to be reconstructed and for that we are working on the tendering process,” said Hamid.

He informed that assessment of losses due to road network in Jammu region has been put at about Rs 484 crore.