UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday stated that the stance of the Congress-led UPA had been tough and “non-negotiable” against terror while at the same it had been innovative in exploring news channels of dialogues with the neighbouring country for sustainable peace.
She said that the overwhelming participation of people in panchayat polls in J&K despite great difficulties and terror threats was a befitting reply for those inimical forces which wanted to weaken the nation and its citizens by perpetrating violence and spreading terror.
The UPA chairperson was addressing a public gathering in the town after laying the foundation stone of J&K’s first cable-stayed bridge at Basohli in Kathua district. She reminisced that the project was the dream of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was to lay the foundation stone of this bridge in 1989 but the event could not take place due to the announcement of the elections.
The 592-metre bridge will be built by the Border Roads Organisation of the ministry of defence at a cost of `145 crores.
Scheduled to be constructed by September 2014, this bridge will be the first such bridge in entire Northern India and only the third of its kind in India after Hooghly and Mumbai bridges.
It will open up an alternative route to National Highway 1A and to the Kashmir Valley via Basohli, Bani, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, Chhatroo and Anantnag areas.