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Govt puts brakes on road works
The growing fund crunch is severely affecting the road development works in the state. As the financial position of the state is precarious, roads & buildings department was reportedly directed a few days ago to be very prudent in taking up new works and confine only to emergency works such repairs to important roads and bridges that are damaged during rains and cyclones this year.
Amaravati: The growing fund crunch is severely affecting the road development works in the state. As the financial position of the state is precarious, roads & buildings department was reportedly directed a few days ago to be very prudent in taking up new works and confine only to emergency works such repairs to important roads and bridges that are damaged during rains and cyclones this year.
Highlights:
- Govt directs to R&B confine itself to only emergency works
- Only Rs 210 cr allocated even though Rs 930 cr bills related to last year’s works have to be cleared
- No extra funds for rural roads converted to R&B from panchayat raj
The situation has put the R&B officials in an embarrassing situation as they are facing tremendous pressures from ministers, MLAs, public and contractors on new road works and payment of bills for the ongoing works.
The state government cut budget by 50 per cent and allocated just Rs 210 crore for 2017-18 year as against around Rs 410 crore in the last fiscal to state highway works even as around Rs 930 crore has to be paid for works of 2016-17 financial year.
“We have to pay at least Rs 400 crore to 500 crore to contractors based on progress of works.
We will not go back on these commitments as the government has already issued GOs and works are already in progress,” said a senior officer of R&B department.
He said laying of state highways is very important in providing road connectivity among the districts, but they were helpless in the current situation.
In a recent review meeting at the Secretariat, the transport and R&B department officials were reportedly given strict instructions on taking up new works. “We were directed to take up works if they are very necessary and of urgent such as roads and bridges that may get damaged due to rains in the next two to three months,” a senior official who participated in the review meet told The Hans India.
Sources said the officials made a presentation to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the financial requirements for current fiscal. “We requested the government for at least Rs 500 crore as additional budget. It will take 2-3 months to get clarity,” the official said. “We are unable to take up works as it is difficult to pay bills to contractors,” he added.
The situation is worst in case of rural roads. Around 5,500 km length roads were been converted to R&B roads last year.
“The government did not give any extra funds to those roads that were converted into R&B roads from panchayat raj roads,” said the official.
The irony is the state government has not even allocated sufficient funds to the roads for which the Centre will reimburse funds under Central Road Fund (CRF). “The Centre will reimburse funds of around Rs 1,000 crore to develop 400 km roads in Andhra Pradesh. In the first phase, Rs 350 crore will be given this year to the state under CRF. But the state allocated Rs 200 crore only in Budget plan,” another senior official explained.
By K Varaprasada Rao
