Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan will head the Empowered Committee to look into better maintenance of rural roads. The Department of Rural Development (DoRD) formed the committee comprising 11 members to take care of the roads in rural zones of the State.
DoRD Secretary Bishnupada Sethi has formed the committee which will finalize funding norms for maintenance of different kinds of roads of different Government departments as per the Odisha Rural Roads Maintenance Policy, 2017. The empowered committee will review and revise norms as and when required for the better maintenance of the roads.
While the Development Commissioner will be the Chairman of the Committee, Principal Secretary, Finance, Principal Secretary Water Resources, Secretary, Rural Development, Secretary, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Secretary, Secretary, Works, Engineer in Chief (Water Resources) and Engineer in Chief (Rural Development) are the members.
The Financial Advisor of the Department of Rural Development is the member-convener of the committee.The Odisha Government formulated the Rural Road Maintenance Policy in July and the Department of Rural Development (DoRD) is the nodal department for road maintenance policy.
Odisha has a geographical area of 1,55,707 square kilometers and a population of 4.2 crore as per the census data of 2011. Around 83 per cent of the population of the State lives in rural areas. Rural roads play an important role for the socio-economic development of the rural people.
The objective of road maintenance, according to the Rural Roads Maintenance Policy, is to prolong the life period of the roads by reducing the rate of deterioration, cost of vehicle operation and sustaining the socio-benefits of improved road access.
While the State has various roads with a length of 2, 49,570 km, out of which 2, 19,675 km is the total length of rural roads, which is 88 per cent of the entire road network in Odisha.