CS reviews progress of USB Rail Link Project, railways to submit weekly progress reports

Srinagar: Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam chaired the Apex Committee meeting to review the progress of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project.
Principal Secretary, Home , Financial Commissioner Revenue, J&K, Principal Secretary, Planning Development & Monitoring Department, Administrative Secretaries of the Departments Forest, Ecology & Environment, PDD, Revenue and Tourism, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), USBRL Project, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Deputy Commissioner Budgam and other senior officers and representatives of Railway Authorities were present in the meeting.
Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Deputy Commissioner, Ramban and Deputy Commissioner, Reasi participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
CAO, USBRL Project informed the Committee that out of the total 272 Km Rail line between Udhampur and Bramulla, 111 Km stretch between Katra and Banihal remains to be connected. The stretch has tunnels in 97 Km length and surface Rail line on 14 K He said 67 Km long escape tunnels are also being provided alongside the main tunnels.
Regarding progress of work on the 111Km Katra-Banihal stretch, CAO, USBRL Project informed that 67 Km construction work of the main Tunnels has been completed along with 30 Km of the escape tunnels. He said work on the project is going on smoothly. However, certain issues requiring intervention of the State Government are projected for early resolution.
To expedite the resolution of the issues and completion of the Project, Chief Secretary directed the Railway Authorities to submit on every Monday by 11:00 AM, a weekly progress report along with details about bottlenecks/stoppages, if any, encountered during the previous week to his office, Principal Secretary, Home, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, IGP Jammu and concerned DCs/SSPs. He asked the Railway Authorities to first seek resolution of the issues with the concerned DCs and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu before referring them to Government.
In order to put in place a coordination mechanism at the district level for the USBRL Project, State Government will constitute Committees of Deputy Commissioners of Ramban and Reasi with District SPs, concerned Revenue Authorities etc and representatives of IRCON and KRCL as members to review the progress of work every week and discuss resolution of issues, if any.
Timelines were also fixed by Chief Secretary for time bound resolution and completion of the few pending land acquisition, utility shifting and compensation issues in Reasi, Ramban and Budgam districts.