Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday directed the officers of the Public Works Department to ensure prompt and quality repair and maintenance of all roads damaged due to excessive rains and landslides during this rainy season.
Presiding over a review meeting regarding repair, maintenance and restoration of rain damages on national highways, here, he said steps should be taken to stabilize slopes by adopting new technology such as rock bolting etc. He said the executing agencies should ensure that adequate men and machinery were deployed at landslides prone areas so that road could be cleared at the earliest in case of any landslip.
"Priority of the government was to ensure porthole free and better roads so that commuters did not face any inconvenience while travelling," he added.
Thakur directed to take immediate steps to remove loose soil and boulders from national highways to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic. He said that long term strategy should be framed to ensure that heavy rains causes minimum damages to the roads by ensuring proper drainage and cross drainage facility. "Retaining walls, breast walls and pavements should be built by maintaining high quality standards so that they could withstand in difficult conditions," he said.
The chief minister asked the officers to ensure filling up of portholes and emergent repair of national highways and action taken report be submitted to his office within ten days. He said that the DPRs should also have maintenance clause so that effective maintenance and repair of roads could be ensured in future.
Expressing displeasure over the slow pace of work on Kiratpur-Manali four-lane, Thakur said this road was major lifeline for tourism in the State. He directed the executing agencies to expedite work on this fourlane and also ensure permanent restoration work by carrying out construction of gabion walls and culverts to drain out the executive water of the catchment areas.
On the progress related to new national highways approved by the Government of India, it was informed in the meeting that out of 70 new national highways, letter of acceptance for preparation of DPRs regarding 58 national highways with total length of over 3650 kilometers has been issued.
The Chief Minister said that executing agencies of all the major four laning road projects of the State should ensure effective and better quality of the roads. They should also ensure that commuters and tourists face minimum inconvenience due to construction of these roads.