Anand Bardhan, the chief secretary, voiced his concern with the sluggish progress of U-PREPARE projects across departments. According to him, ongoing oversight is necessary to accelerate the U-PREPARE programs.
At a meeting of the powerful committee of the Uttarakhand Disaster Preparedness and Resilient Project (U-PREPARE), which is supported by the World Bank, held at the Secretariat on Monday, Chief Secretary Bardhan issued these directives. The meeting resulted in the approval of several ideas.
The Chief Secretary ordered the Public Works Department to speed the construction of 45 bridges under the U-PREPARE program. Work has already been assigned to 31 of the 45 bridges, according to the information provided.
The deadline for allocating the remaining 14 bridges’ work was June 30, 2026. Additionally, he ordered the Public Works Department to hasten the distribution of work for eight highways.
Additionally, the Chief Secretary gave the US Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) instructions to build ten disaster shelters at different sites as quickly as possible. He gave the order to establish a schedule for all U-PREPARE-related tasks, including building the emergency shelters.
He also gave the order to expedite the construction of 19 fire stations and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) training center. Vinod Kumar Suman, C. Ravi Shankar, Ranveer Singh Chauhan, Anand Swaroop, Dr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Dr. Vishnumugam, Secretary Sachin Kurve, and others attended the event.
