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Rs 1300 crore damages happened to roads, bridges due to last year's deluge | | | Early Times Report
srinagar, July 9: Nearly 1700 kms of road length had been damaged due to last September's devastating floods while 152 bridges had suffered damages due to the deluge. The total damage to the roads and bridges due to the floods has been estimated by the authorities at Rs 1300 crore. Official data reveals that 1696 kms road length had got damaged due to the flood out of which 127 kms was totally washed away. Similarly, out of 152 bridges which had suffered damages due to the flood, 54 had been completely washed away. Again due to snow and incessant rainfall during February and March this year, another 686 kms of road length got damaged. "Our first focus last year was to provide connectivity to people and then restore the roads which had been damaged during floods. That exercise we did during October-November. For these locations we provided temporary diversions and at some locations were temporary diversions wasn't available we provided bailey bridges at vulnerable places. It was for the first R&B engineers launched those bailey bridges," Chief Engineer R&B Kashmir, Satish Razdan told KNS. "There was an estimated loss of about Rs 1300 crore to bridges and roads due to floods. For the reconstruction of bridges government has allocated Rs 166 crore and the work on main damaged bridges is on," he said. The Chief Engineer added that they have targeted 800 kms of road length for repairs this year laying maximum stress on Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla and major roads in other towns. "In Srinagar city alone there is damage to nearly 380 kms of road length," he added. Asked why there has been a delay in executing works, Razadan said, "We had started the tender process and initially we did patch work. Then it was proposed that to improve the quality of work and make executing agencies responsible for maintenance of the road, there should be kept a three-year maintenance clause. The contractor will have to maintain the road for three years out of his own resources. It was also proposed that we should lay emphasis on improving on minimum specification which government has approved." "Initially contractors were reluctant to accept this clause. They were also apprehensive about release of funds. But we assured them that release of bills won't be a problem when the work will be upto the mark. There was also some disagreement over rates with the contractors who were demanding high rates," he added. The Chief Engineer said he was hopeful that the targets which they have set for this year will be completed by September end. "We should be able to maintain 800 kms of road length and there will be perceptible change on ground by end of September," he added. |
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