Asifabad: 17 road projects delayed due to lack of forest clearance

According to Panchayat Raj officials, 17 road projects have thus been stalled in the district due to lack of clearance by the State Forest department and the Centre since 2019.

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The delay in giving permission by the State Forest department, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to take up works on road networks in several parts of the district continues to be a bane for people living in remote areas.

According to Panchayat Raj officials, 17 road projects have thus been stalled in the district due to lack of clearance by the State Forest department and the Centre since 2019. The Forest department, had proposed alternative measures to mitigate adverse impact on wildlife in some cases, but agencies concerned have reportedly showed negligence in further taking the projects ahead.

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Ironically, funds were already sanctioned for the proposed road and bridge projects. But, the work on the projects is yet to be commenced mainly owing to the delay in giving clearances by the forest department and the Centre. The issue comes to the fore when local public representatives express displeasure against the Forest officials during general body meetings of Zilla Parishad.

The tacky connectivity draws limelight from the media only when a pregnant woman dies while being shifted to a hospital or when villagers lose lives in a road accident. Officials and elected representatives console the bereaved families of the victims and promise to improve the road and bridge facilities. The issue gradually vanishes from the focus of public and media.

Rural folks bear the brunt of poor connectivity

Since most of the road projects are located in Tiryani, Kerameri, Jainoor, Penchikalpet, Chintalamanapalli and Dahegaon mandals, villagers are left with no option but to depend on private jeeps, vans and auto-rickshaws shelling huge amounts. They face hardships in reaching mandal headquarters and towns for various needs including medical emergencies. For instance, scenes of pregnant women wading through flooding streams and being shifted to a nearby hospital in an inverted cots are a routine affair in remote villages of the district. Passengers commute by auto-rickshaws, jeeps and vans end up paying double when compared to the fares spent on the public transport system. The auto-rickshaws often get stuck in slushy roads, resulting in delays for passengers. Jeeps and vans are overcrowded by passengers.

“It’s a mystery that work on national highways measuring hundreds of kilometres, passing through the district, are complete within two to three years without any hindrance from the same forest department, but 5 to 10 km roads in interior parts never become a reality. Polling stations reach our villages, but development continues to elude us,” Dashru, a resident of Ginnedhari village in Tiryani mandal said.

When asked, District Forest Officer Neeraj Kumar Tebriwal said only five road projects were pending with the forest department, while 10-12 projects were pending with the Centre’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Efforts were being made to give permissions to the projects at the earliest, he said.