Bhubaneswar: In a bid to provide road connectivity to unconnected rural areas, the state government has set a target to construct 3,500-km roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) by end of the current financial year.
This decision was taken at a state-level sanctioning committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here at Secretariat Friday.
Padhi asked the officials concerned to ensure higher quality construction and expedite the completion through close monitoring on a day-to-day basis. The engineers of the department were advised to make use of waste materials in construction of roads.
Engineer in Chief (rural works) Bharat Chandra Pradhan said 43,222 km of road connecting 19, 862 habitations have already been constructed in different parts of the state under PMGSY. The government has spent `18, 624 crore by end of December 2017 for construction of these roads, he said.
Out of the current years’ target for construction of 7,000 km of new road, 3,500 km have been completed while the remaining would be completed by end of March 2018. Detailed action plan was worked out for the purpose, he added.
The panel has approved DPRs for 165 new roads and 36 bridges stretching over 582 km involving investment of around `500 crore. Target was set to complete additional 14,000 km of roads during the next financial year.
Rural Development Secretary Bishnupada Sethi said Orissa tops the country in implementation of the PMGSY scheme. He presented the technical, administrative and financial details for completion of this ambitious target.
During the meet, emphasis was given to use new green technologies like cold mix, roller compacted concrete pavement, paneled concrete, cell filled concrete, waste plastics, nano technology with water proofing etc on construction activities.
Sethi said that the new technology have already been piloted and found fruitful in construction of around 954 km of road in the state. It was decided to construct another 4,500 km of road with these new technologies, Sethi added.
PNN
