The construction of the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch of National Highway (NH 33) is in the priority list of the State Government. The construction work of the highway is delayed due to tendering process and to sort the hurdle the projects has been divided into four parts.
Addressing media persons here on Friday State Road Construction department, secretary KK Soan said, “The construction of highway is in priority list of State Government.
All the bottlenecks in the project have been shorted out and we are hopeful that by end of 2020 the construction work of highway will be completed.” The Ranchi-Jamshedpur project is one the most delayed highway projects in State.
The project to widen to four lanes the 128 km stretch of NH-33 connecting Ranchi and Jamshedpur was to be completed in April 2015, but to due to tender process and lethargic attitude of construction companies the project is running late.
The work on project was started around a decade back. Even the Jharkhand High Court is monitoring the construction work of the project. The matter came to light during the Road Construction department secretary KK Soan press briefing highlighting the achievements of department.
Soan also said that the Centre has agreed in principle for construction of 790 Km long four lane road from Sahibganj to Dhamra port as economic corridor under the Bharat Mala project.
The Secretary said that the construction of the highway will help in improving condition of people in the region. Soan said, “With the construction of the Sahibganj-Dhamra highway project, under the Bharat Mala the State will have three projects. The centre has already approved Raipur-Dhanbad (707 km) four lane road and Sambalpur-Ranchi (323 Km) four lane road.”
Chief Minister Raghubar Das in this connection in June had met Surface Transport and Highway minister Nitin Gadkari. Das urged the minister to connect Sahibganj-Dharma road under Bharat Mala project.
The secretary claimed that the department has set a target of completion of road and bridges project in 100 days worth Rs 1840 crore. Within 100 days, 400 Km road will be constructed at the same time 15 bridges will be constructed.
Soan on the occasion also highlighted the achievements of the department during last four and half years.
In last four and half years, 5575 km of roads (widening, strengthening and others) have been done while before 2014 7939 km roads were constructed.
Similarly, the average construction pay day after December 2014 to till date is 3.39km/day while from (2001 to December 2014) the average road construction/day was 1.55 km.
The bridges completed in last four and half years was 122 bridges, while from 2001 to 2014 the number of bridges was 147.
As there has been pace in road construction project, the increase in road density per 1000 km has also gone up.
In last four and half years the road density has gone up to 51.14 km/1000 while prior to 2014 the road density figure was 38.93 km/1000.
The secretary said that the JPSC and SCC will carry out appointment of engineers in department at the same time the promotion issue of engineers will be cleared by August this year.