Project was sanctioned under Languishing vide LUP No-1943 in 2019
Shyam Sood
Rajouri, Dec 23: Finally, students, staff & faculty of BGSBU, inhabitants of several villages, including three wards of Rajouri Municipal Council (MC), & those traveling on 8 kilometers Rajouri- BGSBU road will take a sigh of relief from the nastiest & awful condition of this road as the Administrative Council (AC) has accorded approval for the widening/construction of this road with an estimated cost of Rs 31.52 Crore.
Government order No: 469-PW(R&B) of 2022 dated 23/12/2022 read: “Post facto Administrative approval is hereby accorded to the ‘Construction of road from Rajouri to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah (BGSB) University ‘length 8 Kms (7 Kms flrxible+1 Km rigid pavement) at an estimated cost of Rs 31.52 Crore under Languishing Projects Program (LUP 1943) funded through JKIDFC”.
The existing road will be broadened from 6 meters to 10 meters wide having a carriageway of 7 meters and a corridor of 14 meters.
It is also pertinent to mention here that besides BGSBU, a few other major offices of the Union Government, including Station (Brigade) HQs, Central Intelligence Agency office, Doordarshan complex, Danidhar Fort, Office of Assistant Director Tourism, and UNO’s office is also situated on this important road and the travelers were facing immense problems while moving on this road.
During the last few months, several protests were organised by the BGSBU students and the inhabitants of this area for early completion of already ongoing construction work (since 2019) on this road.
Initially in 2004-5 road was constructed for a width of 6 meters having a carriageway of 3 meters benefitting about 41000 souls indirectly/indirectly besides feeding various link roads of PWD/PMGSy/BRO and has also importance related to Defence, Telecom & Information.
But after the establishment of BGSBU (in 2005-6) several deputations of prominent citizens met the then Principal Secretary Finance (PSF) for up-gradation on the nomenclature of Rajouri to BGSBU.
Accordingly, a DPR was prepared on the direction of PSF for an amount of Rs 3152 lacs & submitted to higher authorities for the accord of Administrative Approval (AAA).
On January 30, 2019, the then PSF visited Rajouri & the BGSBU road project was sanctioned under Languishing vide LUP No-1943 in the 6th High Power Committee Meeting on 25/2/2019.
PWD (R&B) initiated construction/widening work on this ICON BGSBU road project with a DPR cost of Rs.31.52 Cr without Accord of Administrative Approval (AAA) which was the main hurdle at present.
The contractor has already completed about 60% work proposed for rigid pavement (about 700 meters).
As the project was sanctioned under Languishing for the 2019-20 road project funded by JKIDFC, no payment was released by JKIDFC without AAA.
The contractor has already spent about Rs 12 crore (1200 lacs) to date, but no payment to date.
After several protests against district administration, Deputy Commissioner, Vikas Kundal, took up the matter with higher authorities in the month of October.
“As the road is of immense importance because a large population lives along this road and few important Central Government offices are also situated on this road, fresh files carrying the latest engineering/ official specifications have been prepared and sent to higher authorities for AAA,” said Vikas Kundal.
“As the needed Administrative Approval for the proposed degradation of the Rajouri-BGSBU road has been received, it is hoped that the entire project would be completed before July 2023,” said Maqbool Hussain, Executive Engineer, PWD.
