Kolkata: Work for construction and widening of roads which were handed over to the Public Works Department (PWD) from zilla parishads will start soon after the Pujas.
The state government had decided to takeover district roads from zilla parishads and hand them over to the state PWD to carry out widening, maintenance work and construction of the roads. The decision was taken after the top brass of the state government had realised that it was not possible for the zilla parishads to carry out the work. There were two main reasons for which it had not been possible for the zilla parishads to carry out the task and it includes lack of infrastructure and lack of availability of funds.
According to an official of the state PWD, till date, around 13 roads have been identified that have been taken over from the zilla parishads. The number would go up by another eight to nine by the time Puja is over.
The official said that the first preference is to develop the roads that are connecting the national highways, state highways or two important district roads.
The process of initiating the construction and widening, as per the requirement, has been started and it is expected that it will take another month to complete the process of floating tenders to build the roads and other aspects. Thus, the work expectedly can be started after the Pujas.
It was a major decision to handover the roads which were under the zilla parishads to the PWD. The Mamata Banerjee-government ensured an overall development of the state in the past six years and stress was given in developing road connectivity.
There were hardly any villages left in the state where roads were not being concretised. At the same time, major thoroughfares had also received a facelift after the change of guard in the state.
But there were some roads which were under the zilla parishads and it had not becoming possible to upgrade the same.
The PWD officials had framed a guideline and had asked all zilla parishads to follow it properly while approaching the department to handover a particular road. The first and foremost condition that the PWD had set was that they would not take up a road if it is found to be passing through a plot owned by someone or any private organisation. The zilla parishads were asked to submit all documents and after going through documents only, the PWD officials had decided which roads they would take up for widening and strengthening.