PATNA: Had the central agencies completed all the road projects allotted to them, Bihar, by now, would have enjoyed a big network of rural roads. But this could not be done and the state government puts the responsibility for it at the doorsteps of the central agencies. It also blames them for ignoring the maintenance of the roads constructed by them even though the state government has already paid them for this.
At least five central agencies had been allotted work to construct 3,590 rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), but, till date, only 1,639 roads could be completed. Rural works department, under which rural roads come, is anything but impressed. Hundreds of road projects are still on paper.
“Enough is enough,” lamented rural works minister Bhim Singh. “Several hundred roads for which contracts were given to these agencies are nowhere to be seen,” he alleged. Singh said his department was extremely unhappy with the pace as well as the quality of work. The agencies responsible for construction of rural roads are CPWD, IRCON, NBCC, NHPC and NPCC.
“Out of road projects of 18,908km under the PMGSY, central agencies have completed construction of only 8,690km,” Singh said. He told TOI that the government had asked the agencies to speed up work and ensure a time-frame for the completion of incomplete and untouched projects. Furthermore, the minister has sought assurance on the quality of roads.
“They have sought 15 days’ time to provide us time-frame to complete the work,” said Singh. The government has also sought assurance from the central agencies about the maintenance of the constructed roads and they have promised to provide time-frame for this in seven days.
The minister said, “Under the tripartite agreement among the Centre, state and construction agencies, an agency on completion of a road project has to maintain and repair it for five years with the state government footing the bill.”
“The state government has already paid Rs 31 crore to these agencies but they have not utilized a single paisa on maintenance and repair,” the minister complained. “Nor have they submitted utilization certificate,” he added.
“For the bad condition of the roads, we face public ire as well as the wrath of our peoples’ representatives, who blame us for the non-maintenance and non-repair. We are blamed for no fault of ours,” Singh asserted.
The state government has, however, limited powers to press the central agencies for meeting deadline and maintaining quality of works. As per the provision, there could be an investigation by a joint team if the construction quality is found below the standard. But in this three-member team, there are two members of the construction agencies and only one representative of the state government. “We can only indicate the bad quality and irregularity, but the sole responsibility of correction lies on construction agencies,” the minister said.
This is not the first time the central agencies have been reminded about tardy pace of work and substandard quality. Officials said the state government had on a number of occasions urged the Centre to allot the work under PMGSY to the state agencies, but to no avail.
A total of 1.05 lakh km roads are being constructed in the state, of which 88,000km come under the rural works department and the rest under the road construction department.