Finally, some accountability on ‘poor roads’ front

 

 

 

After a long-time and a hundreds of unfortunate incidents, when the citizens were struggling with the defunct roads in the capital and State and were proving the medium for bounty miseries of denizens, the Public Works Department (PWD) on Friday issued show cause notices to 15 executive agencies along with notices to 156 contractors regarding the bad condition of roads in the State. Nine contractors have been blacklisted by confiscating an amount of Rs 73.30 lakh. In this row, Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation withdrew toll rights from investors on three routes of OMT Scheme. Penal action was taken against the contractors and a fine of more than Rs 1.30 crore was imposed. Road Development Corporation also issued show-cause notices to 17 contractors and 6 officers for not maintaining the road properly. It was informed in the meeting that a pilot project of white topping work is being taken up on 41 selected asphalt roads in 21 districts of the State. Under white topping, 6 to 8 inch thickness of concrete work is done on asphalt roads. As per information, a meeting of the Public Works Department was organised under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav.

 

While reviewing, the Chief Minister called on for a holistic planning for the construction of buildings in accordance with the current requirements for offices in the entire Arera Hills area including Satpura-Vindhyachal Bhawan area. “Metro facility is also going to be available in the area, along with this the road network is also getting better. Therefore, keeping in mind the convenience of the employees and the general public, the infrastructure of the area should be developed while ensuring the facility of walk to work to the work places,” he said. Indore’s Eastern Bypass Project and pothole-free road campaign were also discussed in the meeting. Public Works Minister Rakesh Singh, Chief Secretary Anurag Jain and other officials were also present in the meeting. Chief Minister Dr Yadav said that the Eastern Bypass Project in Indore should be implemented by taking the farmers and residents of the area into confidence.

 

The scheme should be implemented while ensuring the benefits and interests of the local people in the development of the area. Chief Minister Dr Yadav said that work should be done by adopting latest technology in road maintenance. Repeating the age old figures to the chief minister, it was informed in the meeting that in the special campaign launched for road repair in the state from August 7 to September 6, 35,995 kilometres of roads were repaired by the Chief Engineer, Road and Bridge. 46,516 kilometres of roads are registered in the Lok-Path app operated by the common citizens to complain about potholes in the roads. In the last two months, 3,721 complaints have been received in the app, out of which 3,652 complaints have been resolved. Ironically, most of the initiatives taken by the department proved impotent on the ground. Additional Chief Secretary Dr Rajesh Rajoura, Additional Chief Secretary General Administration Sanjay Dubey, Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar Shukla, Principal Secretary Finance Manish Rastogi and departmental officers were also present in the meeting.