Rural development and panchayati raj minister Thongam Biswajit today highlighted the achievements of the department during while releasing official wall and table calendars 2018 of the rural engineering department, Manipur State Rural Road Development Agency (MSRRDA), at his new secretariat office.
Briefing media persons Biswajit highlighted achievements of the department and said that the Centre has sanctioned Rs. 1781 crore for financial year ending March 2018 for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana Phase XI Batch I and II which only testifies that the department has made some achievements. He said under the PMGSY Phase XI Batch I, Rs. 588 crore has been sanctioned for 127 projects which include 121 roads and six bridges.
Batch II has 53 bridges and 141 roads which is altogether 194 projects.
Biswajit also observed that during road construction, be it under the PMGSY or PWD, sometimes a few bad patches including stripping of bitumen are witnessed, however, this doesn’t mean that quality is not maintained in all road constructions. Occurrence of a few bad patches while constructing long lengths of roads only show that the department is undertaking works, he continued. “People can complain to the department authorities against negligence of any engineer or contractor so that the department may take action against the erring persons”, he added.
Stating that quality of a project is graded by the State Quality Control Coordinator (SQC) and the National Quality Monitors (NQMs), the minister said no funds are released if the project has ‘poor’ grading and until all such issues are rectified.
He also said that the PMGSY has a component for first five year maintenance of the road.
He said after completion of the PMGSY Phase XI Batch I, II and III, the PMGSY II will be implemented. Under the PMGSY II, width of the roads will be upgraded to 5.5 meter from the 3 meter roads.
The function was also attended by chief engineer, RED Th. Nandakishore, additional chief engineer L. Brojendra Singh and officials of the department.
Source : IFP
