Ensuring smooth travel and proper connectivity across the State, the Punjab Government on Tuesday gave approval to repair of 11,000 km of link roads in the State with an estimated cost of Rs1,700 crore.
Besides, the State would also spend Rs315 crore for the maintenance and repairing of State highways and other roads.
The slew of decisions were taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a meeting after reviewing the status of national highways, district roads, link roads and several other infrastructure projects in the State.
During the meeting, Secretary PWD (B&R) PS Aujla apprised the Chief Minister that the funds for the repair of link roads have been tied up and tenders would be invited soon so as to complete this gigantic task within a time frame. The repair work of link roads would be executed by the Mandi Board and PWD (B&R) department.
Badal was informed that 230 km of four and six-laning of national highways has been completed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), while work on 400 km is still in progress at a cost of Rs3,080 crore.
It was also informed that a project covering 637 km of roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) will be taken up during the current financial year at a cost of Rs319 crore. As many as 192 roads under PMGSY are likely to be completed by December 2013 at a cost of Rs765 crore.
Chief Minister directed the Secretary PWD (B&R) to closely monitor the progress of ongoing road projects to ensure the quality construction of these ‘arteries of communication’ besides their timely completion.
In addition, Badal also asked Secretary Industries and PWD (B&R) to jointly explore the feasibility to allow mining of minerals like sand, gravel and earth (mitti) to the major contractors on short term basis. This will be done to operate concurrently on their projects as per the practice prevalent in Rajasthan and other States to ensure speedy execution and timely completion of their infrastructure projects on one hand and to tide over the scarcity of construction material on the other.
Badal also asked the Mandi Board and PWD (B&R) to give the highest priority to the repair and maintenance of link roads, district roads and construction of bridges especially in the difficult areas of Kandi and Border.