By Altaf Hussain Janjua
Jammu, Sep 7 (IANS): Jammu and Kashmir, which is mostly mountainous and has a large population living in remote rural areas, has faced major challenges when it comes to road connectivity.
However, a number of initiatives taken by the government to connect the villages have achieved great success. In the last three years, the government's focus on major highways has significantly reduced travel time between major locations in the Union Territory, with priority given to road and tunnel infrastructure.
About Rs 1 lakh crore has been spent to build a strong road network across the UT.
Last year, Jammu and Kashmir set a new record by constructing 6,450 km length of road, achieving third position in the target of longest road length in the country.
Earlier, 6 km of road was being constructed every day for the last few years, which has increased to 20 km per day.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Jammu and Kashmir ranks fourth in the country. A total of 169 bridges have been built in the last two years to strengthen the transport system, and black topping of 7,610 km of roads has been done in the last financial year.
Travel time between Jammu and Srinagar has been reduced from 12 hours to seven hours. For the second year in a row, 2022 saw Jammu and Kashmir maintain its national ranking as it once again ranked among the top three states and UTs for total road length under PMGSY.
Udhampur district topped the list for successful implementation of PMGSY for 2020-21. The district reported the construction of 560.49 km of roads.
The Union Ministry of Rural Development had approved 3,347 schemes under PMGSY Phase-I in 12 phases covering 18,432.79 km at a cost of Rs 1,19,646.76 crore. Road construction was envisaged to provide connectivity to 2,148 settlements.
A total of 107 schemes (704.55 km) have been sanctioned under PMGSY Phase II at a cost of Rs 790.49 crore. The approved SY Phase III aims to provide all-weather road connectivity to unconnected settlements for sustained and inclusive development.