Bihar govt blames Centre for bitumen crisis

Patna, Jun 14 (UNI) Holding the Centre responsible for scarcity of bitumen and stone chips, due to which the road construction works in the state has been hampered, the Bihar government today urged the Petroleum and Railway Ministers to ensure the supply of these materials for carrying out the road construction works smoothly and help in the development of the state.

Bihar Road Construction Minister Nand Ksihore Yadav told newspersons here that he had written a letter to Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to immediately intervene into the matter and ensure bitumen supply, which was actually slowing down the developmental work in the state. For want of bitumen, the monthly and weekly targets of road constructions might not be achieved, he added.

''Against the requirement of 1.32 lakh metric tonnes of bitumen from April to June this year the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) supplied only 44000 metric tonne. The supplies which were well short of the requirement were badly affecting the pace of upgradation of roads, said Mr Yadav.

He further said similar was the situation with the stone chips as it also remained unavailable due to inadequate availability of racks in railways to transport the required amount of both the commodities.

Mr Yadav said he had personally drawn the attention of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad towards the situation who had assured to look into the matter. Inspite of repeated request made by the department which had written to the Railway Board Chairman and the executive director of the Railway Board to sort out the problem, the railway did not pay heed to the problem, informed Mr Yadav. He further said that now he was going to write to the Railway Minister to immediately enhance the number of racks for transportation of both the goods essential for road construction.

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