Taking note of the frequent jamming and inconvenience caused to commuters due to poor management of the traffic movement along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta along with Additional Chief Secretary Home and Director General of Police (DGP), Dilbag Singh, Thursday took first hand appraisal of the progress of four laning of Banihal-Nashri stretch in district Ramban besides reviewing status of traffic movement.
The chief secretary visited vulnerable spots, and proposed truck holding areas at Rampadi in Chambalwas area and directed the RO, NHAI to immediately clear the debris lying at various locations alongside National Highway on Banihal Nashri stretch to facilitate smooth double lane vehicular traffic movement, besides developing truck holding areas.
The chief secretary issued directions for constituting a committee to be headed by principal secretary, PW (R&B) department, and comprising of administrative secretary, transport department; divisional commissioner, Jammu; IG Traffic; deputy commissioner and SSP Ramban to submit a plan to regulate the traffic movement smoothly on NH-44 between Banihal-Nashri stretch. During a high level meeting at Chanderkote, the Chief Secretary directed the IGP Traffic to implement all the directions issued regarding the holding area management at all 4 proposed locations between Banihal- Ramban stretch to accommodate stranded vehicles in the event of closure of National Highway due to bad weather.
Directing the Regional Officer, NHAI to expedite the pace of the widening work, the Chief Secretary asked him to ensure macadamization of existing highway for smooth movement of traffic on the National Highway. He directed the SSP Ramban and RO NHAI to fix the timing for macadamization work to avoid inconvenience to commuters and fruit carrying trucks on the said stretch.
He directed the RO, NHAI to enhance manpower and machinery at all the vulnerable slide-prone areas for immediate clearance of landslides and debris from road, besides filling of potholes and metalling of damaged road to maintain hassle free traffic movement.
He enjoined upon them to install CCTV on these stretches for round the clock monitoring besides fair assessment of the time for which vehicles remain stranded. He asked them to declare these stretches no stopping zones and ensure that no road side parking is resorted to.