RS takes up bill to fund roads in rural areas

New Delhi, May 17 (UNI) Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu today moved an amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha that seeks to change the Central Road Fund Act for raising funds to develop roads in rural areas.

The bill also allows Central government to use the share of funds for repayment of any loan taken for development of rural roads in any state or union territory.

With the recent government decision to allow using the fuel cess to repay loans taken for building rural roads, a parliamentary standing committee had recommended that the government should also fix a ceiling to ensure that most of the funds allocated for rural roads were not used for repaying loans only.

To expand the scope of road cess collected from motorists to finance rural road projects, Mr Baalu had introduced the Central Road Fund Amendment Bill 2006 in the Lok Sabha during December to amend the Central Road Fund Act 2000.

This was required because the CRF Act did not have any provision for borrowing for rural roads and utilisation of the proceeds of future cess for repayment of loans.

Participating in the discussion, Mr Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi of the BJP opposed the amendment bill, saying it was not clear how Rs 16,500 crore of borrowings would be repaid.

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