Principal Secretary reviews mega development projects of I&FC department

Jammu : Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Flood Control, Ashok Kumar Parmar, today convened a meeting to review mega development projects being executed by the department in Jammu province.Chief Engineer, I&FC/RTIC Jammu, Hamesh Manchanda, Chief Engineer, JKPDC, Vikas Sharma, Director Finance (JSD), Lateef Ahmed Poswal, Additional Secretary (JSD), Arun Kishore Kotwal, Joint Director (E&S), Tarsaim Kumar and other senior officers of the department attended the meeting.Regarding Ujh Multipurpose Project, Principal Secretary asked all the stakeholders associated with the project to work in coordination for enhanced results. He also directed the concerned to put up strenuous efforts towards resolving existing bottlenecks in smooth execution of the project. The project has already been accepted in the 148′ TAC with an estimated cost of Rs. 11907.77 crore with Cultivatable Command Area of 40716 ha, annual irrigation potential of 91073 ha and installed capacity of 89.5MW.It was informed in the meeting that Shahpur Kandi Project is a national project which is being executed by the Punjab Project Authority. After completion, J&K will get its due share of 1150 cusecs of water which will provide irrigation to 32173 hectare of area.

Principal Secretary, I&FC desired to visit the project site along with all the stakeholders to have on spot assessment of all the issues like cutting of trees, land acquisition, structures involved for resolution.He directed the concerned to complete the requisite formalities and resolve all the issues so that the work of Tawi Barrage may be started at an earliest.He also directed the concerned Chief Engineers to start recharging of all the canals including New Pratap Canal, Ranbir Canal, Tawi Canal, Ravi Canal and Kathua Canal from 1st of April, 2022 in a phased manner in view of approaching season of Kharif Crops.Principal Secretary said that he along with Divisional Commissioner and District Development Commissioner Jammu will visit the Ranbir Canal to resolve the issues with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highway Infrastructural Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) so that canal may be recharged within the given timeline.