The State Government has commenced the process of constructing a total of 20 by-pass roads to ease traffic in various cities of the State. A budget provision of Rs56 crore had been made in the State Budget 2015-16 for the construction of the by-pass roads, officials stated. PWD Minister Rajesh Munat informed that by-pass roads would help ease traffic congestion in the various cities of the State. Moreover, the State Government has started ensuring better rural roads for regions in proximity to industrial zones near Raipur.
PWD Minister Rajesh Munat performed ‘Bhoomi pujan’ and laid foundation stone for asphalting of five roads in villages adjacent to Ring Road in Raipur early this year. The State Government has sanctioned more than Rs1 crore for asphalting of these roads, officials said. Addressing the people on the occasion, Munat had stated that all these villages are near an industrial area and therefore as per demand of the people an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) will be established in Heerapur from the next academic session.
The ITI will help the youths in acquiring technical skills according to the need of the industries and thereby provide employment opportunities to them in these industrial units, he said. Munat informed the people about various urban welfare schemes of the State Government.
On the demand of people, he announced for providing Rs5 lakh for construction of public stage in Atari village. The Minister laid foundation stone include 1300 meter Ring Road-Heerapur road, 500 meter long road from Heerapur Primary School to Pani Tanki route number 2, 600 meter long road in Jarwai, 500 meter long road from Pani Tanki to Basti in Jarwai and a 700 meter long road from Anganwadi to Shiv Mandir in Atari village.
In some bold decisions taken up in the State Budget 2015-16, which are targetted to build up infrastructure, the State Government has plans to upgrade all State highways and roads connecting district and block headquarters to double-lane roads. In addition, 2,000 km of existing roads will be upgraded in the PPP mode, with an estimated investment of Rs10,000 crore. Besides, Rs700 crore have been allocated for rural connectivity, for roads not covered under Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Scheme.
Moreover, last month, the Central Government had approved a revised cost of Rs3045 crore under its Road Requirement Plan (RRP) for improvement of road connectivity in left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected areas of Chhattisgarh. Overall, the Centre has 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 km State Roads.
In Chhattisgarh, the fund had been approved for improvement of road connectivity in left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected areas measuring 2019 kms . As per details of Physical Progress achieved as on March 1, 2015 under RRP the length of road completed between 2010-11 to 2014-15 in the insurgency infested areas in Chhattisgarh upto February 28,2015 is 868 kms.
As per the State-wise details of fund allocated and expenditure incurred under lWE scheme, Chhattisgarh an expenditure of Rs190 crore was made from 2010-11 to 2014-15 upto February 28, 2015. This information was given by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Planning, Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply in the lok Sabha.
Notably, last year, the Central Government had simplified the procedure for offering general approval under Section-2 of Central Forest Conservation Act 1980, keeping in view the need of infrastructural development for public utility. This implied that general approval for construction of roads on forest land in a total of ten left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts of Chhattisgarh will now be granted easily, official informed here.
As per the simplified procedure, the general approval for construction of two-lane highways on forest land will be given by State Government itself. In this context, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand had issued a circular to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of all the departments and also to the Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors.
According to the officials, simplification of clearance procedure will largely benefit the areas of 10 lWE affected districts of the State, by expediting construction of roads in Chhattisgarh and connecting it to mainstream development. The 10 lWE affected districts include Bastar (Jagdalpur), Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Narayanpur, Jashpur, Kabeerdham (Kawardha), Rajnandgaon, Koriya and Surguja. This simplified procedure will also be applicable in the new districts, which have been formed by reorganizing the aforementioned old districts.
It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Raman Singh, in his meeting with Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment Prakash Javdekar in New Delhi on June 10, 2014, had made the Centre aware of the complications arising in procedure of forest and environment clearances, officials stated. In the circular, the Chief Secretary has directed all the Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors that with effect of the rules relaxed by the Central Government, implementation of two-lane highway projects of Integrated Action Plan (IAP) and other schemes in aforementioned districts should be expedited.