The Rajasthan government proposes to invest Rs 1,500 crore in road development in the state. "We are giving top priority to the strengthening of the road network in the state. There are plans to construct new roads and repair old ones," a senior state government official said, adding that over Rs 1,500 crore would be spent on the development of roads in the state this year.
Rajasthan was ahead of other states in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the official claimed.
Under the project, 1,194 villages of the state are being connected with 3,685 km of roads at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore. Over Rs 125 crore has been spent on linking 397 villages with 918 km of roads till May 2002.
Apart from this, a project proposing to connect the remaining 1,607 villages has been sent to the Centre. The expected cost of the project is Rs 730 crore. Besides, the Centre has decided to link those panchayat headquarters with roads that have not been connected so far on a priority basis. The remaining 160 panchayat headquarters would be connected with concrete roads this year, the official said.
The state government has also initiated a road strengthening project entailing a cost of Rs 600 crore. Under the project, a network of over 24,000 km of roads would be strengthened. The public works department has already completed work on 6,000 km under the project.
The first phase of the project will be completed by June 2002. The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned a loan of Rs 350 crore for the project. The remaining amount of Rs 250 crore will be made available by the state government.
Over Rs 120 crore is planned to be spent on the implementation of 109 projects pertaining to the strengthening of the state highways and the district mainways. This project is being implemented through central funds. Nearly 22 projects have been completed and 77 are in progress. Over Rs 75 crore has been spent on the project. Efforts are also being made by the state government to ensure proper renovation and strengthening of national highways. The government is planning to invest Rs 100 crore for this.
To encourage private investment in the roads sector, the state government has formulated the Rajasthan Road Development Act, 2002. A sum of Rs 134 crore has been spent on 17 road projects in the state under the build-operate-transfer scheme and two projects, entailing an investment of Rs 16 crore, are being implemented.
