The expansion and widening of 15 road projects is being carried on at a brisk pace with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
This was revealed by Public Works Minister Rajesh Munat here.
He called upon the department officers to complete the roads being laid with the financial aid of ADB in a time-bound manner and maintain high-quality
standards.
The financial outlay is about `1887.82 crore for the 916.40 km of 15 roads / routes. The Chhattisgarh Road Sector Project sponsored by ADB will be completed by March 2017, he said.
Munat urged the concerned officers to post all the relevant details on status of road projects online. The project details should be transparent and mentioned at the site: when was project sanctioned, completion date, cost details, contractors names, how many engineers are on duty and other details.
The roads being laid are: Raipur-Balodabazar route, Nandghat-Balodabazar route, Simga-Tilda-Aarang-Kurud route, Raipur-Urla-Pataridih-Kodwa route, Rajnandgaon-Kachche route, Chilfi-Rengakhar-Salhewara route, Chandkhuri-Sambalpur-Nawagarh route, Dhamda-Rohra-Jorhatrai-Ataria- Khairagarh route, Khairagarh-Dongargarh-Tumdibodh route,Balod-Dhamtari , Anda-Funda route, Bodla-Tarengaon-Daldali route, Shivrinarayan-Birra-Champa route, Ratanpur-Kota-lormi-Pandaria-Mungeli route.
While taking it as a challenge, the Chhattisgarh Government has completed construction of 1052 kms of roads in insurgency infested pockets of the State with co-operation of the Central Government, State PWD Minister Rajesh Munat said.
In an official statement issued here, Munat said that the police provided adequate security cover to road development projects in the red zones.
Notably, a total of 16 districts of Chhattisgarh remain insurgency-infested out of the 106 districts in 10 States as identified by the Central Government as ‘left Wing Extremism’ (lWE) affected districts in the country, according to the latest Central Government data.
The districts are – Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Jashpur, Kanker, Koriya (Baikunthpur), Narayanpur , Rajnandgaon, Surguja, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Gariaband, Balod, Sukma, Kondagaon and Balrampur.
Chhattisgarh is also among the seven worst left Wing Extremism (lWE) states which been allocated `228.56 crore as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) by Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had approved the State-wise allocation of Additional Central Assistance of `1000 crores to 35 worst lWE affected districts in seven states recently.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has allocated fund `28.57 crores per district. Thus, Jharkhand is allocated `457.12 crore, Chhattisgarh `228.56 crore, Bihar `171.42 crore, Odisha `57.14 crore and `28.57 crore each to the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In an attempt to boost-up developmental works in insurgency-hit districts, the Chhattisgarh Government has decided to fix three percent amount of cost of construction works funded by the Centre as ‘protection
component’.
Chhattisgarh stands fourth in the country in terms of the number of districts affected by left Wing Extremism (lWE).
A total of 106 districts in the States are considered as left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected. Of these, Bihar has maximum 22 districts, followed by Jharkhand(21), Odisha(19), Chhattisgarh (16), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,- both 8 each, West Bengal and Maharashtra,- both 4 each, Uttar Pradesh,- 3 and Madhya Pradesh, one.
Apart from the above, it is worth mentioning that the numbers of incidents of lWE violence and resultant deaths have also significantly declined during the last four years from 2011 to 2014, officials stated.
Overall, the Centre had approved a Road Requirement Plan (RRP) for improvement of road connectivity in left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected areas of a total of 34 Districts in 8 States covering 5477 km length (1126 km NHs & 4351 kms State Roads.
In Chhattisgarh, the fund had been approved for improvement of road connectivity in left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected areas measuring 2019 kms .