Construction of over 7,700 bunkers completed along LoC, International border in Jammu division

The Jammu and Kashmir government has completed the construction of 7,777 bunkers along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International border (IB) in five districts of Jammu region, officials said on Tuesday. This was conveyed to Divisional Commissioner of Jammu Sanjeev Verma during a meeting with deputy commissioners of border districts held via video-conferencing to review the progress of construction of individual and community bunkers along the border in Jammu division. In December 2017, the Centre sanctioned 14,460 individual and community bunkers for border residents facing Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the IB. "A total of 7,777 bunkers have been completed so far in the (Jammu) division -- 6,839 individual bunkers and 938 community bunkers. The work on 334 other bunkers is on and are at different stages of construction," an official spokesperson said. He said 1,569 bunkers have been completed in Samba, 1,161 in Jammu district, 1,519 in Kathua, 2,603 in Rajouri, and 925 in Poonch. While three districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua share borders with Pakistan along the IB, Rajouri and Poonch districts, along with a part of Jammu district, share borders with Pakistan along the LoC. The divisional commissioner reviewed the stock position of construction material (steel and cement) and directed the deputy commissioners to closely monitor the construction work. He also directed the executing agencies to expedite the pace of work and adhere to fixed timelines. Verma also asked the deputy commissioners to set weekly and monthly targets for completion of work on bunkers and share completion plans. The meeting had threadbare discussion on various issues and resolved many bottlenecks which are hampering the work progress, the spokesman said. Economictimes