Rural roads across Telangana to get fresh coat soon

Hyderabad: All roads in rural areas across the State will get a fresh coat of tar shortly as the Panchayatraj and Rural Development (PRRD) has set a December 15 deadline for finalizing tenders to execute road repair works. In addition to existing roads, the department is preparing plans for laying new roads in areas, which […]

Hyderabad: All roads in rural areas across the State will get a fresh coat of tar shortly as the Panchayatraj and Rural Development (PRRD) has set a December 15 deadline for finalizing tenders to execute road repair works.

In addition to existing roads, the department is preparing plans for laying new roads in areas, which lack proper access, in the next phase.

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The move comes after Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao directed the department to initiate measures for taking up road repair works on a war footing. Panchayatraj and Rural Development (PRRD) Minister E Dayakar Rao has directed officials to prepare estimates for road repair works at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore.

The PRRD department maintains a 67,000 km road network in the State. In the current phase, priority would be accorded to roads that were damaged due to floods and severe rains that lashed the State during the monsoon. This apart, measures are being taken to renew the contracts of roads that were laid five years ago and suffered wear and tear damages. Officials have also been asked to construct bridges for better transportation in forest lands.

The Minister, who attended a workshop on improvement and maintenance of rural roads here on Saturday, instructed the officials to prepare the estimates by Tuesday.

In the wake of escalating transportation costs for shipping bitumen from Visakhapatnam and Chennai, the Minister wanted officials to explore possibilities of setting up bitumen stockyards at two different places in the State. This would aid in cutting down the transportation costs and also facilitate in ensuring quality bitumen for laying the roads, he said.

Regarding new roads, instructions were issued to officials to coordinate with local elected public representatives to identify the stretches. Once the stretches were identified, tenders would be floated for laying new roads with an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore, the Minister said.

The Chief Minister has issued directions to initiate measures for strengthening the PRRD. Under this initiative, steps were being taken up to ensure one Superintendent Engineer (SE) is deployed in each district. The idea was to ensure one SE covers about six to seven assembly constituencies.

To expedite road works, the department is mooting allocation of powers to SEs, DEs and AE to prepare estimates and sanction the works at respective level, as was being done in the irrigation department.