5.30L concrete roads in rural areas constructed in past 10 yrs

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has set a milestone by constructing 5.30 lakh concrete roads in rural parts of the state in the past 10 years.

The roads constructed were done under the ISGP programme by the state Panchayats and Rural Development department.

The Chief Minister had directed a special drive soon after coming to power in 2011 to ensure the construction of rural roads. It was the first time when narrow roads, even in interior parts of any village, have been concretised.

It had improved the last mile connectivity in the state's rural areas that resulted in the improvement of economic activities in and around the region.

The Bengal government has constructed more than 10 lakh km roads while only around 3,000 km of roads were constructed till 2011 since Independence.

This comes when all initiatives have been taken for the third phase of the Banglar Gramin Sadak Yojana. The Chief Minister had also launched the Pathashree Avijyan in Jalpaiguri with an initial target of reconstructing 12,000 km of stretches. Later, more roads were added to the list and the target went up to more than 20,000 km and the work was being executed on a mission mode basis.

Besides the concrete roads, the state Panchayats and Rural Development department had also constructed around 3,000 km using jute and 5,000 km roads using bitumen cold mix. More roads have been taken up for construction with jute and bitumen cold mix.