Complete Ranchi-Bijawada road at the earliest: Dutta

Bhubaneswar, Dec 7 (UNI) Union Road Transport Secretary Brahma Dutta today asked the Orissa government to expedite and complete the 1,219 km of Ranchi-Vijaywada road, that passes through Orissa, at the earliest.

Out of the total 1,729 km of Ranchi-Vijaywada road 1219 km passes through 12 districts of Orissa, 314 km through Andhra Pradesh and 196 km through Jharkhand.

The districts through which the road passes were Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhmal, Boudh, Anugul, Sambalpur, Deogarha, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanja.

Expressing satisfaction over the utilisation of Central Road Fund (CRF) by the state government, Mr Dutta assured to provide Rs 110 crore more to the state government and asked to spend a major portion of it for the Ranchi-Vijaywada road.

Out of the Rs 181.37 crore provided to the state under the CRF in 2006-07 the state government had already submitted utilisation certificate for Rs 182.64 crore till November-07.

A top official of the government said during the 2006-07 out of the total 146 projects , 118 were completed.

Mr Dutta said the Centre as a special case had sanctioned Rs 96 crore for widening and strengthning of the Panikoili-Rajamunda road to eliminate the present problem.

He said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would soon start the work for four laning of the road.

Mr Dutta suggested the state government to follow the RR policy of the National Highway Act to expedite the work.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the tardy progress of work of the Bhadrak-Balasore, Ganjam -Sunakhala and Vishakhapatnam-Ganjam portion of quadrilateral road.

Mr Dutta asked the officials to cancel the tender of Bhadrak-Balasore road and complete the four laning of the Chandikhol-Paradeep and Ganjam-Sunakhala road by March next.

UNI