Damaged roads to be taken up on war footing-Harichandan

Bhubaneswar, Oct 1 (UNI) Orissa Rural Development Minister B B Haridhandan today directed the officials of his department to undertake repairing of rural roads, damaged during the recent flood in August and September last.

Presiding over a high level meeting here, Mr Harichandan said many roads were damaged and tubewells submerged during the flood and directed the officials to undertake the work for repairing and purification of tubewells without waiting for the assistance of the Special Relief Commission.

He also directed the officials to prepare an estimate of the losses and submit a report to the SRC soon.

Official sources said so far around 4000 km of rural road, 1489 bridges were damaged during the flood.

According to a preliminary assessment, around Rs 78.22 crore would be required for the repair of the rural roads only.

Rural Development Secretary S N Tripathy told the meeting that while Rs 42 crore would be needed for repairing the roads caused due to flood in August, Rs 36 crore would be required for repairing the damages, caused to roads in September flood.

In addition to it Rs 11.23 crore would be needed for repairing 871 Rural Development buildings, damaged during the flood.

UNI