Delhi govt seeks Rs 950 cr from Centre to boost road infrastructure

Time of India

a day ago

The Delhi government has sought Rs 950 crore from the Centre under
Central Road Fund
(CRF) to upgrade the city's road infrastructure, TOI reported.
Public Works Department minister
Parvesh Verma
said that out of the 1,400 km under his department, 415 km will be taken up for strengthening under the project.
Verma said that several roads were in a state of disrepair for the last seven-eight years and were full of potholes and broken stretches. He alleged that the previous government never availed funds to carry out the repair work despite Central assistance being available.
"We have decided to completely change the face of the city's roads by taking up massive road strengthening work. We have already repaired over 150km of PWD roads since we formed govt this Feb while another 100km will be completed soon. Our target is to repair at least 500km of city roads this financial year," the minister said, adding that the state government was spending a lot from its own coffers while central assistance had also been sought.
Officials told TOI that the arterial roads that fall under the PWD jurisdiction are strengthened every five years. While the money under CRF is available for new projects, officials said, the strengthening of roads can also be taken up under this scheme.
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PWD has come up with a long list of roads across its jurisdiction in the city that require repair. They will be resurfaced using central funds. The list has been sent to the Union ministry of roads, transport and highways for its approval. Several stretches of Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, parts of Mathura Road, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Africa Avenue, Barapullah Road, all arterial roads in Najafgarh and various flyovers have been included in the project.
The department has mentioned the length of each road, the month and the year it was last repaired and the due date of their resurfacing or strengthening in the project file.
While some of these roads are long, measuring 2-5km, many are also small stretches of a few hundred metres.
According to Verma, PWD will simultaneously repair footpaths and drains with the state funds. "Earlier, the contractors first used to repair the road, then another contractor would come and repair the footpath, and a third one would dig up the drain to repair it. Now we have decided to give a comprehensive tender to the contractors to repair the roads, footpaths and drains," Verma said. It will be the responsibility of the contractor to carry out the regular maintenance work for the next three-five years, till the time of their next restrengthening.