Bengal govt decides to renovate rural rods as panchayat election approaching the state

Kolkata, December 18: While Panchayat election is approaching West Bengal; the state government is also gearing up efforts to win the hearts of rural people. The state government has decided to provide Rs 2,700 crore to widen and renovate 3,000km of rural roads.

Rural connectivity is not at all impressive in various parts of West Bengal. Zilla Parishad maintained roads which are in not so good condition have been taken over by the state public works department recently at the instruction of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The majority work is expected to be started in next March. The width of all the roads initially will be extended to 5m from 3m or less. Rs 90 lakh will be required to develop each kilometer of roads. There was a risk of managing funds as the project did not have any budgetary allocation for it.

During an administrative review meeting at Nabanna earlier this month, the chief minister decided to allocate 25 percent of plan funds for the project. It is expected that about Rs 2,000 crore would come through this route and the rest would be arranged from the budgetary allocation of the PWD.