J-K rain fury: 12,000 km of road length damaged due to floods, landslides

Nearly 12,000 km of road length, including the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, suffered damage in the recent floods and landslides in the Union Territory, officials said.

Restoration work on the damaged Udhampur-Ramban stretch is going on a war footing and expected to be restored by this evening, they said.

"Out of the total road length of 42,000 km, around 12,000 km suffered damage due to recent flash floods," Principal Secretary, Public Works Department, Anil Kumar Singh said.

He said this while giving a presentation about the overall road infrastructure maintained and damaged in floods before Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary here on Monday.

Officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) gave a presentation on restoration work on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and said that it has suffered major damages in the Udhampur-Ramban stretch, which will be restored, while on the Dhar-Udhampur stretch, traffic will move one way beginning Tuesday.

They also apprised that out of a total of 105 bridges on the highway, three bridges were damaged, which have now been restored.

Taking serious note of the damage caused to the Seri-Kath Bridge at Kathua, the deputy chief minister asked NHAI authorities the reason for the Seri-Kath bridge collapse in the recent floods despite having been constructed only a few years back.

He directed the NHAI to conduct a design and structural audit of all bridges constructed by the agency.

The Deputy CM directed the department to coordinate with other agencies for the immediate restoration of the damaged infrastructure as early as possible.

The BRO official said the Rajouri-Thannamandi Road, Surankote Road, Reasi-Arnas-Mahore, Rajouri-Kandi-Budhal, Pouni-Sair-Rajouri, Beeri-Pethan and Jhulas, and Akhnoor-Poonch roads have been restored, whereas work on the Budhal-Mahore-Gul Road is blocked and will be restored within a week.

The status of Kishtwar-Chastoi, Doda-Kishtwar, and Kishtwar-Sintan roads was also reviewed, and the engineers informed that temporary restoration of most roads has been completed, and work on the remaining stretches is going on a war footing.

Keeping in view the massive damage caused to bridges and road infrastructure due to recent floods, the deputy CM directed the NHAI authorities to conduct a safety audit of all bridges, including the design alignment of the structures in a scientific way, which will help in maintaining the eco-fragile nature of the mountainous regions along the highways.

He stressed that all targets set for restoration and completion must be achieved within the given time frame, and wherever executing agencies and contractors are negligent or complacent, strict actions as per norms should be initiated, including blacklisting.