Five new rural roads sanctioned for Thiruvananthapuram

admin Rural Development 0

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Five rural roads have been sanctioned in the district under the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Ministry of rural development has sanctioned 66 new roads for the state of which five roads are in Thiruvananthapuram. These roads measuring 23.49 km will be constructed at a cost of Rs 20.57 crore.

The roads will provide connectivity between Udirapetty-Marymatha junction, Pazhanjipara-Manavari, Kairali junction – Palamukku, Peringamala- Chettachal and Ottupalam-Thalakkal.

The state government had submitted project report for 70 roads measuring 277.288 km for 2017-18 under PMGSY-2. In 2016-17, the government had got project approved for roads measuring 319.948 km at a cost of Rs 274.20 crore.

The officials associated with the project said that although sanction has been received for five roads in the district, the implementation is going to be difficult considering various factors.

Until 2015-16, the ministry of rural development gave cent percent fund allocation for the works which has now been changed in the ratio 60:40, in which Union government will give 60% and state government has to meet 40%.

The rural roads constructed under PMGSY are in accordance with the provisions of ministry of rural development’s specifications for rural roads. The roads have to meet the technical specification and geometric design standards given in Rural Roads Manual published by the Indian Roads Congress.

“Land acquisition and GST are two crucial challenges we face in implementing the project. As per the scheme land has to be surrendered free of cost and this factor has worked against the progress of the scheme in many rural parts of the district,” a project official said.
Earlier eight works were sanctioned in the district under PMGSY-2. The work on various roads during PMGSY-1 was also affected due to issues in land acquisition and getting clearance from forest department in certain places. Besides the three tier quality monitoring system had forced many contractors to withdraw from the works.
“It is at this juncture, GST has come into play further repelling the contractors. The revised cost sharing pattern of this scheme already puts burden on the state government and if the loss of contractors owing to GST has to be compensated, it would call for additional investment,” an official said.
Source: Times of India

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