Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Jitin Prasada, on Friday, claimed that construction of roads, buildings and bridges for the general public were some of the major achievements made by the department as per the 100-day target set by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath soon after assuming office for the second term in March last.
“The department has completed the construction of more than 500 rural connectivity roads at a cost of Rs 787 crore with an average of five connectivity roads per day, the length of which is 1,126 kilometres,” Prasada asserted while listing the achievements made by the PWD in the first 100 days of Yogi Adityanath government 2.0. He was addressing a press conference at Lok Bhavan here on Friday.
Prasada said that 841works costing Rs 882 crore were in progress and all these rural connectivity routes would be completed in this financial year. He said it would be the endeavour of the department to keep progress in the same way.
The minister said that 89 bridges costing Rs 834 crore had been completed by the PWD while the construction of 1,191 bridges costing Rs 3,758 crore was in progress. He said this financial year, a target had been set to complete one bridge every three days.
Prasada said that long bridges were constructed by Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation. He said the Bridge Corporation was constructing 45 river bridges and 20 rail over bridges every year, and doubling it in the year 2023-24, about 40 rail over bridges were targeted to be constructed every year. He said that 511 km roads were constructed at a cost of Rs 1,441 crore.
Prasada claimed that the widening and strengthening of roads at a cost of Rs 17,667 crore was in progress. He said that 10,380 km road repair work in length and 2,910 km renovation work along with road repairs in length had been completed and continuous efforts were being made to improve the damaged roads.
Prasada said the government had approved the construction of 89 inter-state reception gates at the entrance of the states bordering Uttar Pradesh like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand. He said that with the construction of the welcome gates, the citizens of UP and the tourists coming from other states would get a glimpse of the development taking place in the state.
The minister said UP had 89 national highways having a length of 11,590 km. He said last year, with the help of the Central government, construction of 1,720 km highways was completed.
Prasada said that Brij 84 Kosi Parikrama Marg would be constructed in Mathura Vrindavan area at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore for which the process of making the detailed project report (DPR) had started. He said that an online estimator had been launched to bring transparency and save paper in the department. He said that a five-year maintenance policy was being brought and it would improve the quality of roads and solve the problems faced by the people due to early damage of roads. This would also help in limiting the expenditure on maintenance.
Prasada said as a pilot project, an action plan was being prepared for the maintenance of PWD owned roads for five years. These roads will include rural roads of one block in all 18 divisions.
PWD Minister of State Brajesh Singh was also present in the press conference.