Leh, April 27: Advisor to Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Umang Narula convened a meeting to review the status of various infrastructure issues being faced by residents of urban areas in Leh and Kargil towns. The meeting was initiated after a delegation of the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Society met the Advisor and submitted a memorandum highlighting the issues concerning road conditions, street lights, ATM machines and children’s parks, etc.

Commissioner/Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Ajeet Kumar Sahu apprised the Advisor that the Department has already allotted the work of upgrading and improving the condition of roads, lanes, and footpaths to NHIDCL. He stated that more than 180 km of roads are being targeted for improvement in both the towns during the current financial year. He further informed that both the towns have been covered with street lights last year. However, there are a few dark spots that are being identified with the help of local Councilors and ward members and these are being covered during the current financial year.

With regard to issues of the street lights of Ibex Colony, Secretary, Power Development Department, Ravindar Kumar informed that the work on shifting of electric poles would be completed within a week and all the street lights would be provided electricity connection thereafter. Director, Urban Local Bodies further informed that the Department has already invited tenders for installing a Centralized Control Monitoring System (CCMS) of all the street lights as part of the smart cities mission.

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The Advisor asked the Director, Urban Local Bodies to obtain a suitable proposal from both the Municipal Committees for numbering of the lanes, sectors, and zones for easy identification of houses and buildings. He also directed the Additional Secretary, Finance to speak to the various Banks and ask them to install ATMs in uncovered areas for providing easy banking facilities to the residents

Besides, the issue of identifying vacant land for the development of children’s parks and other green areas through the LAHDCs also came up for discussion.

The meeting was attended by Comm/Secy, Public Works Department; Secretary, Power Department Development; Additional Secretary, Finance; Director, ULB and OSD to Hon’ble LG.