Hyderabad, January 12: The State Government has decided to set up a corporation to look after the R&B works of construction of buildings under Private-Public Partnership (PPP) mode.
Reviewing the progress of works of R &B department in the Secretariat on Tuesday, the Chief Minister, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy, has directed the officials to formulate the modalities for setting up of corporation.
Informing this to mediapersons after the review meeting, the Minister for Roads and Buildings, Mr Dharmana Prasada Rao, said that the review meeting has gone through the functioning of the department in the last 10 years. He also regretted that the R&B department has failed to work to the expectations of the people in the last 10 years. Though 20,000-km of Panchayat Raj roads were transferred to the R&B department, no additional funds were allocated to the department, he said, adding that it was decided to allocate additional funds to the department in the coming budget.
The Minister reminded that though the number of vehicles has multiplied by four times in the last 10 years, roads were not developed to meet the rising demand. The R&B department has not been given priority in the allocation of funds like Jalayagnam and Indiramma housing schemes, he maintained. The government has recognized the need to allocate more funds to the department to set right the gap, he added.
Reminding that the State government has requested the Centre to accord national highways status to 6,571 km of State roads and the relevant file was pending at Delhi level, Mr Prasada Rao said that the State government would once again take up the matter with the Centre. Pointing pout that the Planning Commission had agreed to recognise 10,000 km of roads in the country as national highways, he said that the government would represent to the Planning Commission to accommodate AP roads in the quota.
“The State government will also request the Centre to identify another seven districts – Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, East Godavari, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam as Naxal-affected districts. It would bring more Central funds for improvement of the roads and development the road connectivity to the interior areas in the State”, he said.
Replying to a question, the Minister warned that stern action would be taken against the contracting firms, if they found collecting toll charges at the toll gates on highways even after completion of the period that has given to them to collect toll charges.
NSS