The average road macdamisation in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has increased to 20.6 km per day in the last three years as corresponded to 6.54 km per day before 2019, which reflects the progressing development occurring across J&K. The road length in J&K has grown to 41,141 km, and the percentage of blacktop roads has reached 74%, as compared to 66% in 2019, as per the official data. For 2021-22, a target of 5900 kilometres was made of which 4600 kilometres of road length have been made pothole-free to date under the Pothole free road programme. Significantly, Jammu and Kashmir has once again been ranked among the top three functioning states and UTs at the national level for construction of road length per year under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). J&K maintained its rank for the second successive year as the Public Works Department (PWD) constructed a PMGSY road length of 3284 kms during 2021-22 and linked 114 habitations through road networks by performing 427 schemes in the year. Under PMGSY, an average of 9 kms of road length was built per day, which was slightly higher than the accomplishment for the year 2020-21 with an average of 8.67 kms per day, and 119 habitations were linked under PMGSY with 3,167 kms of road length built. With the construction of tunnels and macadamization and the development of the Srinagar- Jammu national highway, the average layover for trucks is now less than 12 hours, which earlier was 24 hours to 72 hours. The travelling time for passengers on the national highway has been decreased to 5.50 hours from 7 hours to 12 hours before 2019. Moreover, four National Highway projects are being constructed in 2022. The implementation of the Delhi-Amritsar Katra Expressway is being taken up. Under Bharat Mala, 10 new road and tunnel projects were decided upon by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH. All habitations with more than 1000 populations as per the 2011 census have been delivered road connectivity. The requirement of road connectivity for the habitations with a 500 population is also being taken up by 2022-23. The Public Works Department (PWD) of J&K has embarked on a mission to reach out to unconnected habitations with road connectivity and bolster and develop the intra-UT road network, particularly in rural and remote locations. Image Source Also read: PM lays foundation stone for Rs 20k cr developmental projects in J&K