To mark 100 days of Raghubar Das Government in the State, Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday gifted five new road projects to Jharkhand. He also announced to connect Sahebganj through Varanasi-Haldia inland waterway project. On the request made by Das, the Union Minister also gave his approval for the construction of four-lane bridge over river Ganga connecting Jharkhand to North East through Bihar.
"The Cabinet has given its approval for connecting 101 rivers for the ambitious project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi through which Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh will also get benefitted. It will be a new revolution in the field of inland waterway in the country," said Gadkari. later talking to mediapersons, he also promised to give his approval for the new length of roads for converting State Highways into National Highways involving a fund of Rs6,000-7,000 crore approx.
The Union Minister added that the inland waterway will be constructed on the five rivers involving Rs4,200 crore having 13 water ports on it. "No barrage will be constructed anywhere between Varanasi and Haldia maintaining a water draft of 3 metres throughout the stretch," said Gadkari. "Construction of the inland waterway will lessen the cost of transportation as many as 1/5th of the existing cost as compared to the road," Gadkari claimed.
According to Gadkari, a requested for providing 79 hectares of land by the State Government has been made for the purpose. "If the State can arrange more land, the Centre is ready to develop Sahebganj as a smart city," he said. Gadkari also asked the Chief Minister to explore the feasibility for the construction of Multi-Model Terminal at Sahebganj on the lines of the proposed project at Varanasi which will open up the gateway river port to North-East.
"We have already given Rs2 crore to the State for the project while Rs65 crore has been kept aside to be handed over to it after the process of land acquisition gets completed," he said. Gadkari also stressed on constructing a bus port on the existing Government Bus Deport in Ranchi on the lines of one being constructed in Baroda offering 2.5 per cent of the total cost by the Central Government for consultancy purpose.
Bus ports have all the facilities like underground parking, restaurant and other amenities like airports, seaports and water ports, he said. Referring to the ample of oil slag availability in Jamshedpur, Gadkari proposed to use it as a raw material for making high quality slag cement to be used further in the construction of air strip, road as well as other construction purposes. "Slag cement is cost effective by at least 15-20 per cent and its quality has been certified by the National Research Bureau after an intensive research work," he said.
He also revealed that the Centre was to table Motor Vehicle Bill during this Parliament session which has been drafted after a thorough study of the MVA of UK, US, Korea, Japan by the think-tanks of the country making it in accordance of the e-governance. "Under the model act, 5,000 driving licence classes will be set up where computers will take the driving tests, which will be gradually sent directly to the Road Transport Officer (RTO) on which it will be binding to issue the driving license within three days," said Gadkari. If the RTO fails to issue driving licence within three days, a RTI could be filed against him, added the Minister.
In addition to that, the Minister added, "The Centre was also bringing in Intelligent Traffic System, installing CCTV cameras as all vulnerable squares in the cities with over 5 lakh of population capacity. Anyone violating the traffic rules will alert the officials who will not be in a position to deny his offence," Gadkari said.
"the Raghubar Government has done which could not be done in the last 25 years in the history of Jharkhand," said the Minister. On the recommendations made by the CM, Gadkari also allocated Rs 300 crore of additional package for construction of roads in Jharkhand. lauding the works done by it, Gadkari said that the Raghubar Das Government has succeeded in solving 100 per cent problems related to speedy construction of roads in the State.
CM speaks
Calling it a historical day for Jharkhand, Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that the State Government will do its best to come up to the expectations of the Centre as well as the people of the State so that Jharkhand could also be counted along with the other developed States in the country