Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has directed the officers of the Public Works Department (PWD) to ensure prompt and quality repair and maintenance of all roads damaged due to excessive rains and landslides during this rainy season.

He was presiding over the review meeting regarding repair, maintenance and restoration of rain damages on national highways, on Friday.

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The CM said that steps should be taken to stabilise slopes by adopting new technology such as rock bolting.

He said that 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.

The priority of the government was to ensure pothole 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.

Thakur said that retaining walls, breast walls and pavements should be built by maintaining high quality standards so that they could withstand in difficult conditions.

He asked the officers to ensure filling up of potholes 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.

CM while expressing displeasure over the slow pace of work on Kiratpur-Manali four lane said that this road was major lifeline for tourism in the state.

He directed the executing agencies to expedite work on this four lane 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.

While reviewing 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 kilometres has been issued.

The CM 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.