Chhattisgarh has commenced preparations for implementation of the Bharatmala project.
A meeting in this regard was held at the official residence of Chief Minister Raman Singh on Wednesday .
During the first phase of the project, five roads would be constructed at a cost of Rs 7000 crore measuring 436 kms, officials informed.
Singh said that ‘Bharatmala’ is an ambitious national project. The State will be linked to three economic corridors. There will be less traffic congestion in several cities including Raipur. There will be easy connectivity to the rest of the country and there will be increase in economic activity.
The officials informed in the meeting that as a part of Mumbai-Kolkata Corridor Durg, Raipur, Arang road will be developed. Six-lane road will be laid up to distance of 100 km from Durg-Arang. Raipur bye-pass road will also be laid. There will be less pressure on the roads in Raipur. As a part of Raipur-Dhanbad Corridor, four-lane road will be laid from Bilaspur-Urga and from Urga-Pathalgaon. As a part of Raipur-Visakhapatnam Economic Corridor, four-lane road will be laid from Kurud-Gutkel on Andhra Pradesh border.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among seven states where a Detailed Project Report (DPR) would be prepared for construction of highways under ‘Bharatmala’ project.
The preparation of DPR of about 3, 600 Km of highways In the States of Odisha, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh And Union Territory of Puducherry would be made, officials informed.
The Chhattisgarh government has set the target of completing construction of 338 roads at a cost of Rs 19,326 crores by March 2018.
The government has already completed development of 6,279 roads measuring a total of 26,504 kms under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, officials informed.
As many as 8,533 settlements near the new main roads had been benefitted by the projects out of 10,560 identified as per the guidelines of the scheme, officials informed.
State Panchayat and Rural Development officials informed that under the scheme, a total of 9461 settlements have been approved to be benefitted from the scheme in which a total of 6,279 roads had been completed.
Chief Minister Raman Singh has said that roads projects worth Rs 35,000 crores are currently in the process of implementation in the entire State.
Notably, the Central government had also been implementing various developmental schemes through its different Ministries/Departments for creating infrastructure in the lWE affected regions of the country including Chhattisgarh. Some of such schemes are Road Requirement Plan-I (RRP-I), Construction of fortified Police Stations, Mobile Towers and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) etc.
The Road Requirement Plan-I (RRP-I scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for improving road connectivity in 34 most lWE affected districts. This scheme envisages 5,422 Km road lengths.
The left Wing Extremists often oppose any development activities in the areas of their influence and try to obstruct the implementation of the schemes, officials stated.
Consequently, some projects are delayed beyond their scheduled time. However, as and when such incidents come into the notice of the Government, adequate security is provided by deployment of Security Forces.
Besides, the Central Government has provided various relaxations for taking up the works in lWE affected areas ensuring early and timely completion of the projects.
These relaxations include accepting of tenders up to 10% higher of the updated cost, splitting the works in smaller parts, awarding of works on nomination basis, separate Schedule of Rates (SoR), extended completion period and general exemption upto 5 hectare forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
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 recently.
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 Rs 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 Rs 1000 crores to 35 worst lWE affected districts in seven states recently.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has allocated fund Rs 28.57 crores per district. Thus, Jharkhand is allocated Rs 457.12 crore, Chhattisgarh Rs 228.56 crore, Bihar Rs 171.42 crore, Odisha Rs 57.14 crore and Rs 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’.