Adityanath govt targets constructing 25 km road a day

To be ramped up to 35 km a day by next year

The Yogi Adityanath government has set an ambitious target of constructing 25 km road a day, which would further be ramped up to 35 km a day next year.

The target of 25 km a day pitches the Yogi government very close to that of Centre’s current performance of constructing about 30 km a day of new roads.

Besides, the state is also targetting construction of a new bridge every two days to develop at least 150 bridges every year, UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told the media here this afternoon.

The government has also relaxed the norm of linking villages with the population of 250, down from 500 earlier, with all-weather connectivity. An investment of about Rs 1,207 crore would be made to link 1,739 such villages with 1,994 km of roads.

The previous Akhilesh Yadav government had also accorded top priority to road, highway and expressway sectors. In fact, ‘double the speed, treble the economy’ was Yadav’s pet catchphrase during his tenure, which saw the development of Agra-Lucknow Expressway and the linking of district headquarters with four-lane roads.

However, replying to a Business Standard query, Maurya claimed the previous regime had no target of laying roads and the average construction of new roads ranged from 10 km a day to 15 km a day at most in the state. “We have set the target of laying new roads to boost the sector and ensure better connectivity across the state.”

The UP road and highway sector witnesses investment of almost Rs 65,000 crore every year, including national highways, state highways, tertiary and rural roads.

Meanwhile, Maurya said almost 83,500 km of roads were rid of potholes in the statewide drive, while the work on the remaining span of roads was on.

For ensuring transparency and quality of civil work in the road sector, the UP Public Works Department (PWD) has mandated e-tendering and third-party inspection.

“Under anti-corruption drive, six contractors have already been blacklisted, while the process to blacklist 19 others is on,” he informed.

The state government has proposed upgrading of 109 state highways as national highways, while the Centre had conceded to upgrading 73 highways of 6,260 km length as national highways.

Besides, the government would link prominent religious spots viz. Ayodhya, Prayag, Chitrakoot and Naimisaranya with four-lane roads to boost religious tourism.