The Chhattisgarh Government on Friday decided to form the ‘Chhattisgarh State Road Development Corporation’ besides a ‘Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Election Committee’ in the State.
The decision was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at the Mantralaya here.later, briefing the media about the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting PWD, Housing and Environment Minister Rajesh Munat informed that the ‘Chhattisgarh State Road Development Corporation’ under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Raman Singh would part of Public Works department.
He said that the PWD Minister would be the Deputy chairman of the corporation, while senior officials of the department concerned would be included as members.He said that ever since Chhattisgarh was formed it had undergone significant development in every sector, owing to which the pressure of road traffic has increased manifolds.
Moreover, the present road density of the State is 69.51 km per 100 sq km, whereas the national average is around 142.68 km per sq km. Besides this, expedited expansion of all main roads from one lane to two lane, two lane to four lane, and from four lane to six lane is also required, Munat said.In view of aforementioned requirement, the department has been deliberating upon the formation of a ‘separate corporation’ since long, for connecting the regions of commercial importance through development of road routes connecting them.
This corporation to be constituted would strive to chalk out new strategies to meet the increasing demand of roads in State with the use of modern technology. It would ensure expedited construction of roads, bridges etc for the purpose, he said.Formation of the corporation would result in completion of works in prescribed time-limit, maintenance of quality standards and proper management of financial resources. Entire Chhattisgarh would be the work area for corporation, Munat said.
The new body would take up the tasks related to National Highways, State Highways, bridges and other important roads that would be marked by State Government from time-to-time. This corporation would enable modern road infrastructure development through construction of high quality traffic routes in the State, by deploying the best of the technical and financial management services of private sector, he said.
In future, the Corporation may also be entrusted with the responsibility of constructing building, airport, corridor, road etc by State Government.
The Minister further informed that in the Cabinet meeting it was also decided that the amount of financial aid provided in case of death or injury due to wild animal attacks would also be increased. In such cases, the provision of compensation is applicable in the State since 1977. Under this, the rate of compensation amount was revised last on September 22, 2010. And now after three-and-a-half years, the Cabinet has decided to revise the rates again, keeping in view the increased prices of various commodities. The financial aid provided in case of death due to wild animal attack has been increased from Rs2 lakh to Rs3 lakh, he said.
In case of permanent disability caused due to the same, the victim would be provided Rs1.5 lakh as compensation, instead of Rs75,000 which was the rate earlier. The compensation amount provided to the injured victims would be hiked from Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 and the amount provided in case of cattle lost in such incidents has been increased from Rs15,000 to Rs20,000, Munat said.
The ‘Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Election Committee’ would be formed for conducting polls of cooperative societies in the State.