Ramban, Oct : Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta along with Additional Chief Secretary Home and Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh Friday took a first-hand appraisal of the progress of four laning of the Banihal-Nashri stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) in Ramban district besides reviewing the status of traffic movement on the highway.
The chief secretary visited vulnerable spots and proposed truck holding areas at Rampadi in the Chambalwas area and directed the RO NHAI to immediately clear the debris lying at various locations alongside NH-44 on the BanihalNashri stretch to facilitate smooth double-lane vehicular traffic movement besides developing truck holding areas.
He issued directions for constituting a committee to be headed by Principal Secretary, PW (R&B) Department and comprising the Administrative Secretary, Transport Department, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, IG Traffic, Deputy Commissioner Ramban, and SSP Ramban to submit a plan to regulate the traffic movement smoothly on the NH-44 on the Banihal-Nashri stretch.
During a high-level meeting at Chanderkote, Mehta directed the IGP Traffic to implement all the directions issued regarding the holding area management at all four proposed locations on the Banihal-Ramban stretch to accommodate stranded vehicles in the event of the closure of NH-44 due to bad weather.
Directing the Regional Officer, NHAI to expedite the pace of the widening work, he asked him to ensure the macdamisation of the existing highway for smooth movement of traffic on NH-44.
The chief secretary directed the SSP Ramban and RO NHAI to fix the timing for macdamisation work to avoid inconvenience to the commuters and fruit-carrying trucks on this stretch.
He directed the RO NHAI to enhance manpower and machinery at all vulnerable slide-prone areas for immediate clearance of landslides and debris from the roads besides filling potholes and metalling of the damaged road to maintain hassle-free traffic movement.
Mehta enjoined them to install CCTV on these stretches for round-the-clock monitoring besides a fair assessment of the time for which vehicles remain stranded.
He asked them to declare these stretches no-stopping zones and ensure that no roadside parking was resorted to.
The chief secretary impressed upon them to keep cranes ready on the road for facilitating towing away of trucks that breakdown on the road.
He directed the concerned to provide a 24-hour helpline number to all the commuters for instant help.
Mehta asked them to explore the possibility of following the 12-hour cycle for the truckers to move from opposite directions instead of the alternate days currently adhered to.
He suggested they use the Mughal Road as an alternative in case of exigencies and blockages.
The chief secretary asked them to utilise the alternative Jawahar Tunnel if the main road was choked.
The RO NHAI apprised him about the section-wise progress on the four-laning of NH-44 including that on the Nashri-Ramban and Ramban-Banihal sections.
Meanwhile, the DGP directed the Traffic and Police Department to effectively regulate vehicular traffic movement and facilitate the smooth passage of fruit-laden trucks on the highway.
He also directed the Police and district administration to implement the orders in letter and spirit issued regarding the no parking zones.
The NHAI was asked to immediately restore the double-carriage traffic movement on these stretches.
It also directed the installation of crash barriers and signboards at all vulnerable spots to provide real-time information to commuters and transporters regarding traffic movement.
Earlier, IGP Traffic gave a PowerPoint presentation and briefed the meeting about vehicular traffic movement on NH-44 besides highlighting the bottlenecks hindering the flow of smooth movement of vehicular traffic.
