Nagpur: Be it Nagpur or rest of Vidarbha, bad roads have really put the state government in the worst situation. Now it appears the State Government have woken up to the situation, with its announcement on Friday that it would remove Vidarbha’s roads backlog by 2021.
Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said this while replying to a call attention motion moved by Congress MLA Virendra Jagtap.
Patil said the BJP-Shiv Sena government had planned to allocate Rs10,000 crore on various schemes for laying roads of which Rs2,000 crore would be released soon, while more allocation will be made in the March budget. “We’re also seeking funds from the Centre under Central Road Fund (CRF) and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI),” he said.
The minister said the government had deputed an official to work in Delhi to co-ordinate for getting CRF and monitor the process. He, however, admitted that over 2,462 villages didn’t have tar road connectivity in state.
“The state would require over 94,000km roads of which 65,416 are already laid, while the remaining would be completed by 2021. As per the policy of one road per village, we’ve connected 12,877 of the total 14,343 villages, having all-weather tar roads in Vidarbha. Those remaining were passing from remote/sensitive/Naxal-infested areas. About 67 villages from Gadchiroli are among them,” he said.
Speaking on Nagpur-Mumbai ‘Samruddhi Corridor’, the minister said the 712km highway would pass through ten districts of which 385 villages will be directly connected. “To fulfil the objectives of roads development plan for Vidarbha for 2001-2021, the government would be taking loans from NABARD and maintain roads on ‘hybrid annuity’ basis. The roads in rural areas would be laid under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Mukhya Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,” he said, adding that unless rural roads were developed, farmers from the area concerned will never able to sell their produce in cities.
Earlier, Murtizapur MLA Harish Pimple asked the government to first lay roads before starting Metro in Nagpur, as those were actually required by the people of Vidarbha. He said when the government could take loans from World bank and other agencies, why it can’t take them for roads.
