Delhi govt seeks central funds to boost road infrastructure

Time of India

9 hours ago

New Delhi: Delhi govt has decided to seek Rs 950 crore from central govt under Central Road Fund (CRF) to upgrade the city's road infrastructure. Public Works Department minister Parvesh Verma said that of the 1,400km stretches under his department's jurisdiction, nearly 415km will be taken up for strengthening under this project.
Verma added that a number of these roads were lying in a state of disrepair for seven-eight years and were full of potholes and broken stretches. Despite central assistance being available for strengthening the roads, the previous govt never availed of the funds to carry out the work, he alleged.
"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. He added that Delhi govt was spending a lot of funds from its own coffers while central assistance had also been sought.
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According to officials, 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.
PWD has prepared a long list of roads spread across its circles and divisions in the city that will be repaired and resurfaced from the central funds and sent it to the Union ministry of roads, transport and highways for its approval. Various 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 the minister, 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, he added.