The State Government on Friday announced that new offices of Transport Department would be opened in left Wing Extremism (lWE) districts mainly-- Narayanpur, Sukma and Bijapur of Bastar.
Transport Minister Rajesh Munat stated that GPS monitoring of all the vehicles at the divisional headquarters level would also be done.
He said that laptops would be provided to the In-charges of Transport offices, Check Posts and Flyng Squad as part of the modernisation drive of the Transport Department.
The State government has made budget provision of Rs 95.29 crore in its 2016-17 budget for the Transport Department.
The State government has decided to go for modernization and computerization of integrated border check posts at 16 locations in the State.
The government will soon get a Detailed Project Report (DPR) prepared for the project, officials stated.
Incidentally, the first road falling under Centre's Road Development Scheme for left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts has been constructed between Konta to Golapalli in heavily insurgency infested Sukma district of Bastar.
The PWD has completed the work of three meter wide road. Similarly construction of other roads under the scheme are underway in Sukma district, officials informed.
The Chhattisgarh government for connecting the hinterlands of insurgency infested regions with the rest of the State has been trying to develop road network in Maoist stronghold regions.
Similar endeavours under the direction of district Collector Sukma Neeraj Kumar Bansod is going on in the insurgency-hit district.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government announced early this month that it will soon commence work for construction of as many as 92 roads falling in left Wing Extremism (lWE) hit districts of the State.
Of the total 153 roads to be constructed in seven lWE districts of Chhattisgarh under ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’ (PMGSY), tenders have been invited for 92 roads, said an official, adding that the estimated expenditure for construction of these roads would be around Rs 163.17 crores. The tenders had already been awarded for 90 roads, officials stated.
As per information received, Chief Minister Raman Singh had recently reviewed the progress of ongoing preparations to complete the road construction works in a meeting held with Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar and his Department officials.
Notably, following the problems being encountered during road construction works in lWE districts, the Chief Minister has sent a proposal to the Centre for re-inviting tenders for construction of 92 PMGSY roads.
It needs to be mentioned that these roads were sanctioned for seven districts of Bastar division between 2001-02 and 2008-09, of which 35 roads were sanctioned for Bastar, Kondagaon (18), Kanker (12), Sukma (8), Nayaranpur (8), Bijapur (7) and Dantewada (4), said officials , adding that administrative approval of Rs 149.66 crore was given for construction the roads.
As of now, Rs 62.25 crore has been spent on construction of 92 roads and remaining works will be carried out with pending amount, the officials informed.
Information received from District Collectors of respective districts highlighted that as many as 267 road construction works were sanctioned under PMGSY between 2001-02 and 2008-09, of which 114 road works are in progress while 153 works were hindered due to Naxal problem.
Based on information that 92 pending works could be started again, the Chief Minister had directed officials of Panchayat and Rural Development to table a proposal for re-inviting the tenders of road works to the Central government. After necessary approvals from the Centre, the Department has floated tenders for road construction works.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is 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, officials stated.
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.
Out of these 35 districts, there are 16 lWE affected districts in Jharkhand, 8 in Chhattisgarh, 6 in Bihar, 2 in Odisha and one each in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.