'Govt to build roads in extremist-hit areas in mission mode'

The government has decided to construct highways in extremist-hit states in mission mode as these are harbinger of economic prosperity, Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
"Highways are the harbinger of economic prosperity. The government has decided to construct roads and bridges in extremist-affected areas in mission mode under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Gadkari said addressing the Chief Ministers and PWD Ministers of extremist-hit states in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
He said extremism was a threat to democracy and government was serious to bring in development in such areas through faster construction of roads, an official release said.

Gadkari said his ministry would soon come up with an online system for tracking of projects in such areas.
He also reviewed the projects to resolve the bottlenecks in speedy implementation of road works being executed through the state PWDs.
The meeting was also attended by senior officials of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, state PWD (and MOS Home) along with senior officials of Ministry of Home Affairs, CRPF, BSF etc.

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways had taken up improvement of road connectivity in 34 severely LWE-affected districts covering a total length of 5,477 km and eight states of AP (now Telangana), Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh under road requirement Plan (RRP).

Out of the 5,469 km length sanctioned, works for 4,908 km were awarded.
As on date, 3,299 km length (67 per cent) is completed, incurring an expenditure of Rs 4,374 crore under this scheme.