In a major decision, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and National Highways headed by BJP veteran Nitin Gadkari is said to have decided to announce four more National Highways in Jammu division including one prominent border road of Old Jammu-Sialkot route which will boost border tourism in Suchetgarh as well as help the Armed Forces in their movement while three others will connect rural and upper reaches where road connectivity was earlier quite less but is significantly improving now.
“A formal announcement is expected to be made by Gadkari in the next few days,” official sources .
One of the four highways will start from Tawi bridge and will pass through Jammu Airport, Miran Sahib, RS Pura and end right up to Indo-Pak Border which is also called as Old Jammu-Sialkot road.
“This road is being declared as the National Highway under Highway Ministry’s prestigious Bharatmala project,” sources said, adding declaration of this road as a Highway will not only be of great help to the Armed Forces especially beyond Satwari but will also boost border tourism in Suchetgarh.
It may be mentioned here that the Border Security Force (BSF) had recently started Wagah-like ‘Beat the Retreat Ceremony’ at Suchetgarh in RS Pura tehsil located right along the International Border with Pakistan. However, like Wagah, Pakistan is yet to join the ‘Beating the Retreat’.
“Road is not in good condition from RS Pura to Suchetgarh. However, the conversion of road as the National Highway will definitely boost the tourism as not only there will be good road conditions but other facilities will also be generated,” the sources said.
Another road which is being declared as the National Highway is Dayalachak-Challan-Billawar-Manpur-Basohli.
This new National Highway will also be part of Bharatmala project of the Union Ministry for Road Transport and National Highways.
This, according to the sources, will boost inter-road connectivity in Kathua district linking Hiranagar-Billawar-Basohli tehsils.
While Hiranagar tehsil is located near the International Border, Billawar and Basohli are the hilly tehsils and their conversion into the National Highway will give major boost to road connectivity in the hilly areas and drastically cut travel time and distance.
It may be mentioned here that the Government also proposed to bring Billawar, Basohli and Bani on the tourist map.
Two more roads which are being declared as the National Highways are Kathua-Basohli-Bani-Bhaderwah-Doda (connecting National Highway-44 with National Highway-244) and Doda-Bhaderwah-Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) connecting National Highway-154 A with National Highway 244, the sources said.
They added that Kathua-Basohli-Bani-Bhaderwah-Doda highway will give major boost to road connectivity to hilly areas of Kathua and erstwhile Doda district while Doda-Bhaderwah-Chamba highway will become major road link to Himachal Pradesh.
“New highways will become boon for tourism in these areas,” the sources said.
As per the sources, exact cost of these highway projects is being worked out but it will be substantially very high.
“The cost will be announced along with formal declaration of four roads as the National Highways by the Union Ministry,” they said.
Only yesterday, Gadkari had approved works on major National Highways and roads worth about Rs 3900 crore in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and the neighbouring State of Punjab.
He had approved a budget of Rs 441 crore for rehabilitation and up gradation work to two-lane with paved shoulder on Akhnoor-Poonch road on the National Highway 144-A.
Gadkari had also approved construction work of 4/6-lane Access-Controlled Expressway from junction with Pathankot-Gurdaspur road (National Highway-54) near Balsua to junction with Hiranagar road in Kathua district of Jammu near village Gurha Baildaran of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.
This will have the cost of Rs 3044.02 crore and will cover the State of Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said.
In the Union Territory of Ladakh, Gadkari had approved construction work of three realignments including Drass, Kharboo and Kargil between Pandrass-Pashkyum on Zojila-Kargil-Leh road (National Highway-I) with two-lane.
The work has been approved under Project Vijayak (Border Roads Organization) on Engineering Procurement and Construction Mode.
The work has been sanctioned at the cost of Rs 426.14 crore, the officials said.