In a bid to strengthen and upgrade the entire road network envisaging National highways, State highways, Main District Roads (MDR), Other District Roads and link roads, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Advisor Roads to state government Major General (Retd.) MS Pillai to formulate a master-plan for periodic maintenance and repair of total length of 60676 kilometers of roads.A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister in a high level meeting with the Chief Engineers of the Public Works Department, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Punjab Mandi Board and Border Roads Organization (BRO) here at his residence this afternoon.
Taking part in deliberations, the Chief Minister also asked Major General (Retd.) Pillai to put in place an effective mechanism to ensure proper usage of material for building roads as per the stipulated norms on one hand and do away with the practice of putting exaggerated estimates on the other. He also impressed upon Major General (Retd.) Pillai to involve elected representatives of people to ensure quality check, which he termed as 'social audit', for better construction of roads and its longevity. Badal also asked the concerned authorities to ensure that side drains/ cross drainage works of link roads must be completed before the commencement of the roadwork. He also appreciated the ABC classification of link roads on the basis of traffic density so that routine maintenance funds could be allotted to these roads as per their classification.
The Chief Minister also asked the Advisor roads to prepare a comprehensive proposal for seeking central assistance for the upgradation of state's entire road sector right from link roads to national highways. Badal said that he would soon meet the Union Defence Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley to seek his personal intervention for getting special funds for the repair and upgradation of Border Roads in the state.
Underscoring the need to strengthen the rural road network in the state, the Chief Minister asked Pillai to lay special emphasis on the meticulous planning/ designing and quality assurance for the construction of link roads as these factors had been blatantly ignored so far resulting in poor construction work and hefty amount to be spent on their repair time and again. Mr. Badal also asked the officers of the PWD and Mandi Board to jointly work out a time bound action plan for the periodic repair and upgradation of these arties of rural Punjab, which had played a crucial role in the overall development of these areas. Likewise, he also emphasized to enhance the carriageway width of the Link roads from the existing 3.5-5.5 metres to atleast 10 metres for the decongestion of traffic as a part of futuristic planning.Prominent amongst those present in the meeting included Cabinet Minister Jathedar Tota Singh, Financial Commissioner Development Mr. Suresh Kumar, Secretary PWD Mr. PS Aujla, Special Principal Secretaries to Chief Minister Mr. Ajoy Sharma and Dr S Karunaraju and Chief Engineer Project Chetak BRO Mr. MS Sodhi.