Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari laid foundation stone of five major highway projects worth Rs1700 crores approved for Chhattisgarh in a programme held here on Thursday. Chief Minister Raman Singh presided over the programme. Overall, on the Union Minister’s visit, the Centre has approved road projects worth more than Rs20,000 crore to Chhattisgarh.
Union Minister of State for Steel and labour, Vishnudev Sai, Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat, Member of Parliament Abhishek Singh, MlA Ashok Sahu and MlA Motiram Chandravanshi were present as the special guests on the occasion. The projects include National Highway 12A Kawardha-Bemetara-Simga section, National Highway 216 Raigarh-Sarangarh-Saraipalli section, National Highway 43 Dhamtari-Kanker section, National Highway 43 Bedma-Dahikonga section and National Highway 43 Dahikonga-Jagdalpur section.
This is Gadkari’s second visit to Chhattisgarh within a month after January 13. On that day the Union Minister had made announcement that the Central Government would carry out construction of roads and bridges in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on mission mode with precast and other advance technologies with assistance from Military Engineering Services (MES) and DRDO in Bastar.
He had stated that local contractors would also be engaged for construction of roads and other development works in violence-hit pockets. The Union Minister in his last visit had reviewed the progress of road infrastructure works in insurgency-hit eight states and heaped praises on the security forces and construction agencies for executing the key road projects in red zones despite all odds.
Gadkari had told officials attending the review meeting that around 75 per cent of the Naxal problem could be solved if a network of roads and bridges is developed in insurgency-hit areas. He had emphasised on using latest technology in road construction work and insisted that roads laying projects should be completed in a time-bound manner.