State Public Works Department Minister Rakesh Singh, on Friday conducted a meeting at the State Secretariat in Bhopal with senior officials of the Department. During the meeting, he gave necessary directions and discussed supplementary budget and progress reports from the previous meeting with the departmental officials. During the meeting, Minister Singh stressed upon the need to work towards development of Madhya Pradesh in the field of infrastructure development, aligning with commitment to public welfare. He urged officials to ensure high-quality work with a positive mindset and emphasised upon the importance of timely completion of projects. Singh also stressed upon the need for monitoring and conducting quality audits for effectiveness of the projects, with a dedicated cell for monitoring significant initiatives. He suggested involving subject matter experts in formulating plans for Assembly-wise projects.

 

PWD Minister Singh directed the department to make maximum use of new technologies in their operations. It was informed that the department has plans for utilising Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) technology for road construction, a process that involves reclaiming materials over existing roads without removal, leading to significant time and cost savings. Rakesh Singh proposed considering the application of FDR technology on urban roads in cities like Jabalpur and Bhopal for practices like micro-surfacing and white-topping. A team is being formed to assess projects using new technologies and discussions were held regarding the creation of an Integrated Project Management System for the department. The system aims to provide transparency in project management by issuing all permits through computerised systems, enabling real-time monitoring of financial and physical progress.

 

Minister Singh stressed on the urgency of implementing computerisation within 100 days, with a target to launch it by April 1, 2024. To address potholes and accelerate the identification and repair process, the department will develop a mobile app called “Pothole Reporting Citizen,” enabling citizens to report road potholes by geo-tagging photos through their mobile phones. The GPS location-tagged photos will be sent to concerned authorities for timely action and progress updates will be obtained through the same mobile app. PWD Minister Singh asked that a review of projects with delays exceeding two years should be conducted every 15 days. Those attended the meeting were Chief Secretary PWD, D P Ahuja, Managing Director, Road Development Corporation, Avinash Lavania and other concerned senior officials.