Jammu, Nov 24 (UNI) Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday laid the foundation of 25 National Highway projects worth Rs 11,721 Cr at the Sports Stadium in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Notably, the 25 projects are being executed by NHIDCL, NHAI and BRO which will increase the total length of NH by 257 km.
Gadkari was flanked by Union MoS in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Member Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma.
Addressing the gathering, Gadkari said, “UT of J&K has a huge tourism potential which will be connected through numerous projects in the upcoming days for boosting employment and economic development of the UT.”
He said that these projects will work as an important line for the development of the industrial sector.
Gadkari said that these projects for which the foundation has been laid will work as spine for the socio-economic development of the Jammu province in general and for erstwhile Doda district in particular.
“After taking over the charge of this department the central government has framed a separate road map for the development of this UT and to accelerate the developmental scenario number of bridges, roads, tunnels are being constructed on war footing basis at the estimated cost of thousands of crores, besides assured that the investment will be tripled in upcoming years upto two lakh crore especially for J&K,” said the Minister.
While talking about the futuristic projects the Union Minister said that the DPR for various roads and tunnels are at DPR stage and shall be completed in the upcoming days which will be a big push to the Developmental scenario of the UT.
Dr Jitendra Singh in his address said that this is a historic day for the region since 25 new projects were started among which majority of the projects are for the region.
He also urged the Union Minister to connect the Hambal, Kalhota, Marmat with the new alternate highway, a demand that was on the spot acceded to by the Union Minister.
He said that the Union Govt under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving special focus to the areas which were neglected by previous regimes in the past.
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